LONDON.- In the lead up to the Australia exhibition at London’s Royal Academy, Sydney based artist, Paul Davies, showcases work in neighboring gallery, the Fine Art Society, established in 1876. Davies work accompanies international artists and fellow Australian Janet Lawrence, and was inspired from his three month Paris residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts, prestigiously awarded by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia. The group exhibition Natural Selection opens 27th July, 6 -8pm and runs through August 29th, at the Fine Art Society, 148 New Bond Street, London.

Davies paintings are essentially landscapes, however comprise selected natural and manmade images, collaged on the canvas, to produce utopias and possible scenarios, devoid of human form, inviting the viewer to generate their own response. The artist’s Australian sensibility towards open plan spaces and kitsch motifs is evident through his use of block colour to depict swimming pools and holiday retreats, yet these sights are abandoned, no longer offering the solace they intended.

Central to Davies method is the use of stencils, delicately cut by the artist, and deriving from his own photographs. Similar to the protagonist, London photographer “Thomas”, in Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow Up, Davies, employs photographic source material to construct narratives in the studio, that conflict with their place of origin. Davies also sights British sculptor Rachel Whiteread as inspiration when “casting” paint in the negative space of the stencil onto the canvas. “The viewer looks at a painting, however through a stencil, and in my pictures I am attempting to paint the space between subjects.” Paul Davies.

Since 1965 the Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, has attracted artists from all over the world. Davies has exhibited both in Australia and internationally since 2002 and his work has been featured in the following publications: W Magazine online, Wallpaper* online, Frame Magazine, Tatler Asia Online, Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald amongst others.