Jim Davies
Selected Works
Biography
Education
1977–79: Masters of Visual Arts – Painting, University of Alberta, AB
1973–77: Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Guelph, ON
Selected Exhibitions
2017: Iron Light, Scott Gallery, Edmonton AB
2014: Travellers/Facing North, CNP Public Art Gallery
2013: Cenovus Invitational Exhibit, Calgary AB
2012: Prairie Darkness, Scott Gallery, Edmonton AB
2011: Ballachey, Davies, and Alexander, Virginia Christopher Gallery, Calgary AB
2010: Smell of Pine and Popular, Scott Gallery, Edmonton, AB
2009: Profiles Public Gallery, St.Albert, AB
2008: Fall Confluences, Scott Gallery, Edmonton, AB
2008: Bilton Contemporary Art Gallery, Red Deer, AB
2006: Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery
2004: Draw, Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, AB
2004: Art Gallery of The South Okanogan, Penticton, BC
2004: 100 years of Painting in Alberta, Whyte Gallery of the Canadian Rockies, Banff, AB
2004: Stokes/Davies Landscape Painters, Wallace Galleries Ltd, Calgary, AB
2003: The Blue Before Dawn, Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery, Red Deer, AB
2003: The Blue Before Dawn, Extension Centre Gallery, Edmonton, AB
2002 – 2004: Pulse, travelling show
2002: Fran Willis Galleries Ltd, Victoria, BC
2002: Western Landscapes, Prince George Art Gallery, Prince George, BC
2000: Davies/Cantine, Vanderleelie Art Gallery, Edmonton, AB
2000: Invitational Painting to Chine, organized by Ontario College of Art & Design
1999: Restless Journeys, Amelia Douglas Gallery, Douglas College, BC
1998: Vanderleelie Gallery Ltd, Edmonton, AB and Vancouver, BC
1998: Summer Invitational Landscape Exhibition, Art Placement Gallery, Saskatoon, SK
1997: Art Gallery of Swift Current, Swift Current, SK
1996: Wallace Galleries Ltd, Calgary, AB
1994: Shadowlands, Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology, Drumheller, AB
1984-1994: Vik Gallery, Edmonton, AB
1993: Suntides, Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery, Medicine Hat, AB
1991: Pieces of the Puzzle, Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, AB
1987-1991: Evelyn Aimis Fine Arts, Toronto, ON
1991: Paintings of the Prairies, McLaughlin Civic Centre Art Gallery, Oshawa, ON
1989: New Work in Landscape, Kitchener/Waterloo Art Gallery, ON
1989: Art for All, Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, AB
1988: 1st Canadian Biennial of Prints and Drawings, Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, AB
1988: Narrative Paintings, Grande Prairie Art Gallery, Grand Prairie, AB
1987: Fine Arts Building Gallery, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
1987: Witness of Private Motive, Alberta College of Art Gallery, Calgary, AB
1986: Spaces and Places: 8 Decades of Landscape Painting in Alberta, Alberta Foundation of the Arts
1985: Witness to Private Motives, Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, AB
1984: New Landscape Paintings, Kamloops Public Art Gallery, Kamloops, BC
1981 New Paintings, Citadel Theatre Lobby, Edmonton, AB
1980: Some Drawings by Some Albertans, Alberta College of Art Gallery, Calgary, AB
1980: Alberta Culture, Alberta Foundation of the Arts, Edmonton, AB
1980: Recent Work, Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB
1979: Six Young Artists From the Prairies, Banff School of Fine Arts, Banff, AB
Commissions
2007: Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute/Diagnostics Centre Heartland Project (Two person collaboration with Stuart Adams), Edmonton, AB
1997: Francis Winspear Centre for Music, Edmonton, AB
Public Collections
University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
McLaughlin Civic Art Gallery, ON
Nickle Art Museum, Calgary, AB
Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, SK
University of Guelph, Guelph, ON
Mississauga Art Gallery, Mississauga, ON
Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Hunting Hills Secondary School, Red Deer, AB
Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, Edmonton, AB
Alberta Foundation for the Arts
Kamloops Public Art Gallery, Kamloops, BC
Medicine Hat Museum Art Gallery
University of Lethbridge Permanent Collection
Government of Canada (Dept of External Affairs)
Edmonton City Hall
Kitchener/Waterloo Art Gallery
University of Alberta Hospital
Red Deer College of Art Collection
Francis Winspear Centre for Music, Edmonton, AB
Artist Statement
Jim Davies explores the balance of light and dark in a series of emotive landscapes from areas around Alberta. Davies’ expressive technique creates a lively narrative that places the Prairies in a mysterious and intriguing context.
Davies’ work is situated within the long history of European and North American Landscape Art movements and as such, demonstrates elements of curiosity, symbolism, fantasy, imagination, and harmony. It is this awareness of archetypes and mythologies within the genre of landscape that adds to the complexity of his paintings. His work challenges the prairie ideal while simultaneously depicting it has a space for the imagination to rest and flourish.
The spectrum of light is central within Davies’ oeuvre. From the light of midday to the complex darkness of night, his lyrical and gestural marks depict the continuum of life. He works outside from observation – a practice which adds a specificity of place to his work. Yet the outcome is an imagined landscape that point to several narratives. This approach addresses the individual experience as well as more universal emotions.
Throughout most of these paintings a human element emerges; either as a path, the suggestion of a figure, or through the motion indicated by the brush strokes. The result is a series of paintings that are reflective in their familiarity of place but transformative in their unexpected presence.