Jose Dávila (b. 1974, Mexico) draws on his training as an architect and his knowledge of art history to create sculptural installations, photographic works and paintings that simultaneously emulate, critique, and pay homage to 20th century avant-garde art and architecture. Throughout his artistic career, Dávila’s practice has explored spatial occupation and the transitory nature of physical structures.
In his sculptures, Dávila employs industrial and quotidian materials to make simultaneously humorous and critical reference to Modernist masterpieces. In these works, materials are held in semiotic and structural tension – balanced both between high and low culture, and between permanence and collapse. Employing gravity and chance as materials, Dávila’s carefully arranged, and precariously balanced works expand the conventions of historical forms, and test the limits of the medium of sculpture.
Jose Dávila has had notable solo exhibitions at Museo Jumex (Mexico City), Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg), Marfa Contemporary (Marfa), Camden Arts Centre (London), and many others. His work can be found in the public collections of Centre Pompidou (Paris), Albright Knox Museum (Buffalo), Collection Deutsche Bank (Germany), MUDAM Museum of Modern Art (Luxembourg), Reina Sofia National Museum of Art (Madrid), MALBA Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art (Argentina), MUAC Museum of Contemporary Art Mexico City (Mexico City), Collection Inhotim (Brumadinho), Zabludowicz Collection (London), and Museo Jumex (Mexico City) among others.
Dávila has had solo show exhibitions at Haus Konstruktiv (Zurich), Sammlung Philara (Dusseldorf), Franz Josefs Kai 3 (Vienna), Museo del Novecento (Florence), Dallas Contemproary (Dallas), and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Querétaro (Santiago de Querétaro).
