Jose Dávila
PROJECT
Originally trained as an architect, Jose Dávila creates sculptures by arranging objects as if they are basic elements of a drawing. For this new commission, Dávila pairs naturally weathered volcanic boulders from Guadalajara riverbeds with a single, used basketball from a local court. Foregrounding states of tension and restraint, Dávila provides a portrait of compression and balance in which each sculptural volume expresses both fragility and hardness, resistance and adaptability. Through carefully calibrated arrangements, Dávila invites viewers to consider the delicate forces that govern physical structures and the quiet drama that emerges when stability is tested.
The acquisition of this artist’s work is supported by Michael & Emily Tong
ABOUT
Drawing on his architecture training, Jose Dávila investigates the translation, appropriation and reinvention of the modernist movement. Dávila’s work is in the permanent collection of numerous institutions all over the world, and he has presented solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, Takasaki (Japan); Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich (Switzerland); and the Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City (Mexico). In 2017 works by Dávila were installed at several sites across Los Angeles as part of a mid-career survey of his work presented by the Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND). Dávila has won many awards, including the 2016 BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art’s New Annual Artists’ Award and the 2014 EFG ArtNexus Latin America Art Award, and has been the recipient of a Kunstwerke residency in Berlin, a national grant for young artists by the Mexican Arts Council. In 2022 Dávila published a major monograph illustrating the past twenty years of his practice.