Spanierman Modern Presents Lisa Corinne Davis’ Capricious Calculations

The Brooklyn painter breaks the barrier between figuration and abstraction

October 19 – November 13, 2018
 

(Miami, FL -  September 24, 2018) - Spanierman Modern presents Capricious Calculations, an exhibition by Brooklyn painter and educator Lisa Corinne Davis. In this body of work, the artist transforms the familiar, and subverts meanings and connotations through experimentation with objective and subjective formal languages. The show is also the debut exhibition at Spanierman Modern’s new Midtown Miami space. Capricious Calculationswill run from October 19 through November 13, 2018 at Spanierman Modern (located at 151 NE 41 Street in Midtown, suite p133). An opening reception will be held on Friday, October 19, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Gallery hours are Monday – Saturday, 11:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m., and Sunday 12:00 - 6:00 p.m.Through the works in Capricious Calculations, Davis continues her exploration into the use of color, geometry, and subjective and objective forms to suggest the complex relationship between race, culture, and history. Davis’ manner of painting is located between abstraction and figuration - a semiotic position devised to encourage a viewer to relocate and reconsider their own proximity to form and the personal experiences and ideas that affect their ability to read an image. At the heart of Davis’ practice is the notion that the viewer must decide whether the information in each painting should be received as presented or dynamically interpreted according to their individual lens. If the latter choice is made the viewer must also contend with the fact that all memory and relational understandings brought to the work are subjective, and thus, renders any readings hinging upon them as fluid and without static definitions with the passage of time.

Lisa Corinne Davis’ oeuvre shuttles between allowing the paint to fulfill its mark-making function on the canvas, while referencing the physical world and cheeky nods to modern ubiquity and dependence on technology. The paintings are a playful investigation that culls different formal languages into one two-dimensional plane where both the paints and the compositions themselves misbehave, stretch, and transform to create a new kind of unified field.  For the artist, both visual and written languages serve as malleable mediums for experimentation. With titles like Analytical Anarchism, Quixotic Quantum, etc. the artist draws together disparate ideological references to further engage viewers whilst simultaneously allowing the paint to speak for itself.

Lisa Corinne Davis is an abstract painter exploring themes of racial, social and psychological identity. Born in Baltimore, MD, currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY, Davis received her BFA from Pratt Institute, and her MFA from Hunter College. Her paintings have been exhibited across the United States and in Europe, including one person shows at Gerald Peters and Spanierman Modern (New York), Zolla/Lieberman Gallery (Chicago), and The Mayor Gallery (London). Her work is included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Davis is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowship, and three New York Foundation for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowships. In 2017, she was inducted as a National Academician at the National Academy Museum & School. Her essays on art and culture have been published in the Brooklyn Rail and Art Critical.  Davis has previously taught painting at the Cooper Union School of Art and Yale University; she is currently Professor of Art at Hunter College in New York.