Sean Kelly is delighted to announce The Circularity of Desire, Jose Dávila’s third solo exhibition at the gallery. The exhibition is based upon research Dávila conducted during the pandemic into the iconography of the circle and its presence throughout art history in the 20th and 21st centuries. Remarking on the phenomenon, Davila observes, “I’m interested in the circle as the most platonic of forms, it has been a constant human desire. The circle is the symbolic element of human progress.” Comprised of new paintings, sculptures, and silkscreens on cardboard, themes of circularity and the recurrent influence and circular forms throughout art history unite these three interrelated bodies of work. 

The canvases on view in the main gallery, constructed of silkscreen print and vinyl paint on raw linen, are the largest single presentation of Dávila’s paintings to date. The works contain texts regarding the use of light as a compositional tool, juxtaposed with circular elements appropriated and recontextualized from paintings by artists including Hans Arp, Willys de Castro, Sonia Delaunay and Frank Stella, amongst others. These paintings employ a unique procedure linking images and texts which otherwise would not intersect, enabling the viewer to generate personal connections between what is seen and what is read.

Dávila’s new sculptures are focused on themes that prevail consistently throughout his practice; a visual articulation of the force of gravity through precarious balance, and a desire to draw attention to art historical references that have particular meaning for the artist. Expanding upon these two concerns by incorporating the idea of circularity, Dávila has created new vocabulary with which to address themes of balance, poetic intuition, the symbolic nature of materials and important art historical moments. 

The material nature of Dávila’s works play a central role in his sculpture and allude to human need and aspiration to construct our environment. The volumes, geometry and lines that define his sculptures suggest an alternate, spatial notion of painting and drawing in space. Natural and manufactured elements such as wood, steel, stone, glass and metal coexist; some have been used for centuries to shape our life—others only since the Industrial Revolution. Dávila incorporates all these elements in their primary form with minimal intervention, resulting in compositions that allow for dialogue between the materials in an unfettered state. 

In the lower gallery are a series of silkscreens printed on found cardboard incorporating existing logos and markings on the material. Dávila’s circular graphics reference pop art and draw attention to the recycling of material and mass consumption. 

Jose Dávila has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, TX; the Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico; Sammlung Philara, Dusseldorf, Germany, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg Germany and Marfa Contemporary, Marfa, TX amongst others. His work is in the permanent collection of numerous institutions including, the Centre Pompidou, Paris France; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; the Perez Art Museum, Miami, FL; the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City, Mexico; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil; Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo, New York; the Zabludowicz Collection, London, United Kingdom; the Cisneros Foundation, New York, NY and Miami, FL; the Museum of Modern Art, Luxembourg; San Antonio Museum of Art and The Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston. Dávila was the winner of the 2017 BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art’s Annual Artist Award, the 2014 EFG ArtNexus Latin America Art Award, he has been the recipient of support from the Andy Warhol Foundation, and the National Grant for young artists by the Mexican Arts Council (FONCA) in 2000. In 2017 the Getty Foundation awarded the Los Angeles Nomadic Division a grant to develop a mid-career survey of Dávila’s work.