Tim Davis — When We Are Dancing (I Get Ideas) is a solo exhibition of recent work by Tim Davis, an artist, writer, and musician who makes photographs, video, drawings, sound, and installations among many other endeavors. Davis makes artwork that explores the intersection of humor and longing, where the ridiculous meets the sublime, and the abject aligns with the beautiful in unexpected ways.
Davis has what writer Charlie Finch calls, “a dead-on ability to capture the simple enticements of random objects.” Davis’s artistic practice, regardless of medium, is united by a thirst for collecting and a desire to help reveal the universal and ubiquitous nature of narrative-building. Having begun his career as an artist with a career as a poet, Davis is accustomed to the idea of the sudden onset project, the need to make something for an occasion or a season, and Tim Davis — When We Are Dancing (I Get Ideas) amounts to a set of collections, each beginning with a sudden insight, and boring down into the bedrock of obsession. Three videos form the center of the show, each staring hard into the margins of the artistic process.
Tim Davis was born in Blantyre, Malawi and currently lives and works in upstate New York. He received a BA from Bard College and an MFA from Yale University. His photographs and video have been exhibited in the finest museums and galleries across the globe. The installation Elevator Music 29 Tim Davis: Unphotographable was on view at the Tang Museum in 2015. He is a Joseph H. Hazen Rome Prize recipient and is the author and subject of several monographs including Quinto Quarto, The New Antiquity, Permanent Collection, and My Life in Politics. His works are in the permanent collections of institutions including The Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Walker Art Center among others. He is a regular contributor to Aperture and Cabinet magazines, and his recent album, It’s OK to Hate Yourself, is available on vinyl.
An opening reception for Tim Davis — When We Are Dancing (I Get Ideas) will be held on Saturday, October 20.