Mike Davis
“The Balance of Priorities” 2017
17″x19″
oil on panel
Past exhibition
7 September — 24 September 2017
Private: Mike Davis
Mike Davis : Memories and Maladies
Matthew Namour Gallery is thrilled to be hosting Mike Davis’ latest solo show in Montreal.
Davis renders complex paintings embedded with symbols of mortality, folly, and hubris in the style of the Netherlandish Flemish Primitives such as Bosch, Bruegel and van Eyck.
His oil paintings create an alternate world where anything is possible; combining arcane personal symbols with social commentary. His work depicts a world of myth and colliding timeframes, a land “on the other side of the bridge,” but one that resonates with our own—not as memory but as a dream.
Private: Mike Davis
Mike Davis is a modern surrealist painter, who currently lives and works in San Francisco, California.
Possessing a multi-faceted set of interests, Davis began painting in 1997, and attributes much of his inspiration to watching his mother pursue craft projects during his childhood, and immersing himself in art history throughout his career. From helping his mother with activities ranging from woodworking, hand-tooling leather, and remodelling the family’s home, to engaging with ancient art and Netherlandish painting from the Northern Renaissance, Davis is a self-taught painter, who continues to render complex paintings of surrealist life, embedded with symbols of mortality, folly, and hubris, fixated within whimsical compositions.
In addition to painting, Mike Davis is a musician and woodworker as well the owner of an internationally-renowned tattoo shop, Everlasting Tattoo.His paintings have been acquired for permanent collections of museums and his work has been featured in many publications, such as Juxtapoz Magazine; Hi-Fructose; Art Ltd.; Pop Surrealism: The Rise of Underground Art; Tatt Book: Visionaries of Tattoo;Beyond Tattoo; and several high traffic art blogs. Davis has tattooed an extensive list of international and celebrity clientele, and is featured in a number of prestigious private art collections located throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, and much of Europe.
