Ian Davenport is a contemporary British artist, whose abstract artwork has helped to define a generation. Graduating from Goldsmiths College of Art in 1988, Davenport was quickly recognised as one of the Young British Artists, participating in the seminal 1988 exhibition Freeze. Only three years later, Davenport was shortlisted for the Turned Prize and, in 1999, was a prize winner in the John Moores Exhibition in Liverpool. Read more
His large-scale paintings foreground materiality and process, to create a bold and abstract aesthetic. Using household paint on prepared canvases, Davenports’s procedures are systemic but the process relies heavily on chance: pouring and dripping onto titled surfaces, Davenport lets gravity do the rest. The result is a body of work that channels a sense of physical immediacy and dynamism: in the drips and pours, the trace of Davenport is palpable. Recently, Davenport has turned to silkscreen printing and etching, diversifying his already impressive oeuvre.
His work is held in numerous public collections including the Arts Council of Great Britain; British Council; Tate, London; Nuffield College, Oxford University; Museum of Modern Art, La Spezia, Italy; Weltkunst Collection, Zurich; Borusan Art Gallery, Istanbul and Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas. The first monograph dedicated to Davenport was published by Thames & Hudson in 2014.
Ian Davenport is a contemporary British artist, whose abstract artwork has helped to define a generation. Graduating from Goldsmiths College of Art in 1988, Davenport was quickly recognised as one of the Young British Artists, participating in the seminal 1988 exhibition Freeze. Only three years later, Davenport was shortlisted for the Turned Prize and, in 1999, was a prize winner in the John Moores Exhibition in Liverpool.
His large-scale paintings foreground materiality and process, to create a bold and abstract aesthetic. Using household paint on prepared canvases, Davenports’s procedures are systemic but the process relies heavily on chance: pouring and dripping onto titled surfaces, Davenport lets gravity do the rest. The result is a body of work that channels a sense of physical immediacy and dynamism: in the drips and pours, the trace of Davenport is palpable. Recently, Davenport has turned to silkscreen printing and etching, diversifying his already impressive oeuvre.
His work is held in numerous public collections including the Arts Council of Great Britain; British Council; Tate, London; Nuffield College, Oxford University; Museum of Modern Art, La Spezia, Italy; Weltkunst Collection, Zurich; Borusan Art Gallery, Istanbul and Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas. The first monograph dedicated to Davenport was published by Thames & Hudson in 2014. Read less
