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Jose Dávila

Guadalajara, Mexico. 1974
Memory of a Telluric Movement

Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Switzerland, June 2 – September 11 2022.

Memory of a Telluric Movement

Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Switzerland, June 2 – September 11 2022.

Memory of a Telluric Movement

Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Switzerland, June 2 – September 11 2022.

Memory of a Telluric Movement

Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Switzerland, June 2 – September 11 2022.

Memory of a Telluric Movement

Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Switzerland, June 2 – September 11 2022.

Memory of a Telluric Movement
Le pietre sanno aspettare

Centro Internazionale di Scultura, Peccia, Suiza, 2021.

Le pietre sanno aspettare

Centro Internazionale di Scultura, Peccia, Suiza, 2021.

Le pietre sanno aspettare

Centro Internazionale di Scultura, Peccia, Suiza, 2021.

Fuerza Bruta

Forum Guanajuato, León, México, 2020.

Fuerza Bruta

Forum Guanajuato, León, México, 2020.

Fuerza Bruta

Forum Guanajuato, León, México, 2020.

Fuerza Bruta

Forum Guanajuato, León, México, 2020.

Fuerza Bruta

Forum Guanajuato, León, México, 2020.

Fuerza Bruta

Forum Guanajuato, León, México, 2020.

Fuerza Bruta

Forum Guanajuato, León, México, 2020.

To Each Era Its Art, To Art, Its Freedom

Central Wharf Park, Boston, United States, 2020.

To Each Era Its Art, To Art, Its Freedom

Central Wharf Park, Boston, United States, 2020.

To Each Era Its Art, To Art, Its Freedom

Central Wharf Park, Boston, United States, 2020.

Las Erupciones Son Frecuentes

Museum of Contemporary Art of Querétaro, Mexico, 2020.

Las Erupciones Son Frecuentes

Museum of Contemporary Art of Querétaro, Mexico, 2020.

Las Erupciones Son Frecuentes

Museum of Contemporary Art of Querétaro, Mexico, 2020.

Museum of Contemporary Art of Querétaro, Mexico, 2020.

Museum of Contemporary Art of Querétaro, Mexico, 2020.

Las Erupciones Son Frecuentes

Museum of Contemporary Art of Querétaro, Mexico, 2020.

NIRIN

22nd Biennale of Sydney, Australia, 2020.

NIRIN

22nd Biennale of Sydney, Australia, 2020.

NIRIN

22nd Biennale of Sydney, Australia, 2020.

NIRIN

22nd Biennale of Sydney, Australia, 2020.

Directional Energies

Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, United States, 2020.

Directional Energies

Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, United States, 2020.

Directional Energies

Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, United States, 2020.

Directional Energies

Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, United States, 2020.

Directional Energies

Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, United States, 2020.

Directional Energies

Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, United States, 2020.

Directional Energies

Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, United States, 2020.

Pensar como una montaña

2019. Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico. Curated by Amanda de la Garza.

Pensar como una montaña

2019. Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico. Curated by Amanda de la Garza.

Pensar como una montaña

2019. Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico. Curated by Amanda de la Garza.

Pensar como una montaña

2019. Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico. Curated by Amanda de la Garza.

Pensar como una montaña

2019. Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico. Curated by Amanda de la Garza.

Los límites de lo posible

2019. Detrás del muro. Curated by Juanito Delgado. La construcción de lo posible, XIII Bienal de la Habana, Cuba.

Los límites de lo posible

2019. Detrás del muro. Curated by Juanito Delgado. La construcción de lo posible, XIII Bienal de la Habana, Cuba.

Los límites de lo posible

2019. Detrás del muro. Curated by Juanito Delgado. La construcción de lo posible, XIII Bienal de la Habana, Cuba.

Los límites de lo posible

2019. Detrás del muro. Curated by Juanito Delgado. La construcción de lo posible, XIII Bienal de la Habana, Cuba.

Los límites de lo posible

2019. Detrás del muro. Curated by Juanito Delgado. La construcción de lo posible, XIII Bienal de la Habana, Cuba.

Sueño autosuficiente

2019. Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico.

Sueño autosuficiente

2019. Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico.

Sueño autosuficiente

2019. Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico.

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

2018. Real Jardín Botánico, Madrid, Spain.

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

2018. Real Jardín Botánico, Madrid, Spain.

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

2018. Real Jardín Botánico, Madrid, Spain.

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

2018. Real Jardín Botánico, Madrid, Spain.

Somewhere Behind the Eyes

2018. Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, Germany.

Somewhere Behind the Eyes

2018. Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, Germany.

Somewhere Behind the Eyes

2018. Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, Germany.

Non tutti quelli che vagano sono persi

2018. Museo Novecento, Florence, Italy. Curated by Lorenzo Bruni.

Non tutti quelli che vagano sono persi

2018. Museo Novecento, Florence, Italy. Curated by Lorenzo Bruni.

San Jacinto Sculpture Group

2017. Parque San Jacinto, Guadalajara, Mexico.

San Jacinto Sculpture Group

2017. Parque San Jacinto, Guadalajara, Mexico.

Sense of Place

2017. Los Angeles Nomadic Division, Getty Foundation, United States.

Sense of Place

2017. Los Angeles Nomadic Division, Getty Foundation, United States.

Sense of Place

2017. Los Angeles Nomadic Division, Getty Foundation, United States.

The Weaker Has Conquered the Stronger

2017. Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom.

Non tutti quelli che vagano sono persi

2018. Museo Novecento, Florence, Italy. Curated by Lorenzo Bruni.

The Weaker Has Conquered the Stronger

2017. Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom.

The Weaker Has Conquered the Stronger

2017. Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom.

Every Blind Wondering Ends in a Circle

2017. Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona, Spain.

Every Blind Wondering Ends in a Circle

2017. Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona, Spain.

Every Blind Wondering Ends in a Circle

2017. Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona, Spain.

Every Blind Wondering Ends in a Circle

2017. Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona, Spain.

Die Feder und der Elefant

2017. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany.

Die Feder und der Elefant

2017. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany.

Die Feder und der Elefant

2017. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany.

Die Feder und der Elefant

2017. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany.

Practical Structures

2016. SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design), United States.

Practical Structures

2016. SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design), United States.

The-Elephant-and-the-Feather-1

2016. MARFA Contemporary, Texas, United States.

The Elephant and the Feather

2016. MARFA Contemporary, Texas, United States.

The Elephant and the Feather

2016. MARFA Contemporary, Texas, United States.

The Elephant and the Feather

2016. MARFA Contemporary, Texas, United States.

Praise to the Shadow

2012. Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Mexico.

Praise to the Shadow

2012. Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Mexico.

Praise to the Shadow

2012. Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Mexico.

Praise to the Shadow

2012. Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Mexico.

The Space Beneath Us

2012. Art Public, Art Basel Miami Beach, United States.

The Space Beneath Us

2012. Art Public, Art Basel Miami Beach, United States.

Jose Dávila’s work originates from the symbolic languages that function within art history and Western visual culture. These pictorial, graphic and sculptural languages are reconfigured as contradictory and contrasting relations, taking the correspondence between form and content to its limit. The artist represents these oppositions through different perspectives: the association between images and words; the structural disposition of materials which entails the possibility of a harmonious balance or disarray; the use of peripheral routes in order to define architectural space and the presence of objects. Dávila’s work is essentially a multidisciplinary endeavor that presents a series of material and visual aporias, these paradoxes permit the coexistence of fragilty and resistance, rest and tension, geometric order and random chaos.

Jose Dávila uses the appropriation and recontextualization of iconic artworks in order to question the way in which we recognize and relate visually. A series of translations and editing procedures are employed in order to modify the normal procedure of identification; materials are modified, elements are highlighted or concealed, and the languages of art movements are reproduced with local resources and within a contemporary context.

Dávila’s sculptural work is based on the specificity of the employed materials; their origin, symbolic value and their formal characteristics are elements that take great significance. Industrial materials interact with organic raw materials. Influenced by his architectural background, Dávila arranges objects as if they were basic elements of drawing (point, line and plane) for creating systems that exemplify notions of equilibrium, stability and permanence. With these sculptures Dávila intends to provide visibility to the physical processes that are required in order for things to maintain their shape and occupy space in a specific manner. Human intervention and the material disposition of things produce hybrid systems that respond to structural intuitions; technique unfolds itself as a poetic dimension.

Jose Dávila studied architecture at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (Guadalajara, MX). He is a self-taught artist with an intuitive training.

His work has been exhibited at International Sculpture Center, Switzerland; Museum Berggruen, Berlin, GER; Haus Konstructiv in Zürich, CH; Biennale de Lyon, FR; Centro Internazionale di Scultura, Peccia, CH; Dallas Contemporary, US; Yuz Museum, Shanghai, CN; Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, MX; Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, DE; Museo Amparo, Puebla, MX; Museo del Novecento, Firenze, IT; Getty’s PST LA/LA Triennial, Los Angeles, USA; Sydney Biennial, Sydney Austraulia; Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, USA; Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona, SP; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, DE; Marfa Contemporary, Marfa, USA; Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, USA; Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, NL; Rockefeller Plaza, New York; USA; Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, NL; Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo MUAC, Mexico City, MX; Caixa Forum, Madrid, SP; MoMA PS1, New York, USA; Kunstwerke, Berlin, DE; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, USA; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, SP; MAK, Vienna, AT; Fundación/Colección JUMEX, Mexico City, MX; Bass Museum of Art, Miami, USA; Museu de Arte Moderna, Sao Paulo, BR; among others. 

His work is part of international public and private collections such as Jumex, Tamayo, Mexico City; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, US; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, FR; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, SP; Inhotim Collection, Brumadinho, BR; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburgo, DE. Dávila has been featured in international publications such as Cream 3, ed. Phaidon; 100 Latin American Artists, ed. Exit and the monograph The Feather and The Elephant, ed. Hatje Cantz.

Jose Dávila has been awarded with the 2017 Baltic Artists’ Award in the UK and is a 2016 Honoree of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, USA. Dávila has received scholarships and funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Sistema Nacional de Creadores del Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Mexico.

The artist lives and works in Guadalajara.

Joint Effort

2014. Adhesive vinyl film on archival pigment print. 183.5 x 125 x 130 cm

Homage to the Square

2013. Aluminum frames, paint, metal wire. 180 x 180 x 5 cm

Untitled

2018. Glass and boulders. 125 x 539 x 54 cm

Homage to the Square

2015. Paint, glass, and wooden shelf. 100 x 100 x 20 cm

Homage to the Square

2015. Ceramics cuted and painted by hand. 100 x 100 x 20 cm

Fragments of a Metropolis

2013. metal frames and epoxy paint. 170 x 170 x 150 cm

Untitled (Cowboy)

2014. Archival pigment print. 50.8 x 61 cm

Untitled (Cowboy)

2014. Archival pigment print. 154 x 220 cm

Strange World (Persil)

2014. Cardboard box and gold leaf. 30 x 40 x 30 cm

General installation view
The Origins of Drawing V

2014. Gold leaf on archival pigment print. 270 x 180 cm

Partial view exhibition

Practical Structures

Posibilidades Finitas I

2012. Cement, neon. 77 x 222 x 140,5 cm.