John Moores 2010

'Puddle Painting: Dioxazine', Ian Davenport

2009, Acrylic paint on stainless steel mounted on aluminium panel, 250 x 250 cm

Artist's statement

I often use unconventional methods and processes in my work. In my most recent paintings, I use heavy duty syringes to pour lines of acrylic paint down aluminium or stainless steel panels. Initially precise and controlled, each line of pure colour falls down the surface until reaching the bottom where the sheet has been bent, encouraging the paint to merge and overlap, pooling and 'puddling' together. There is a delicate balance between controlling the flow of paint and allowing it to run free.

Musical influences are important to me; the repetition of multiple vertical lines of various colours creates an underlying rhythm that pulses through each work. Like a piece of music, the 'Puddle Paintings' are composed of quiet, soft sections that hum in the background contrasted with intense, crescendos of brilliant colour. The composition of repeated lines allows me the freedom to explore colour, to see how one colour sits next to another and creates different effects. They are guided by an intuitive response to colour and its sensory power.

Biography

Born in Kent in 1966, Ian Davenport attended Goldsmiths College London 1985-88. Group exhibitions include 'Freeze' London 1988, 'Turner Prize' Tate Britain London 1991, 'Days Like These' Tate
Britain 2003, 'Other Times: Contemporary British Art' City Gallery Prague 2004, 'Painting as Process: Re-evaluating Painting' Earl Lu Gallery Singapore 2004, 'Between the Lines' Gallery Hakgojae
Seoul Korea 2007/8, 'British Council Collection' Minsheng Art Museum Shanghai 2010, 'Pictures on Pictures' Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Vienna 2010. Solo shows include Ingleby Gallery Edinburgh 2003, Ikon Gallery Birmingham 2004, Alan Cristea Gallery London 2006, Gallery Hakgojae 2008,
Waddington Galleries London 2009. His fourth appearance in the 'John Moores'.

www.waddington-galleries.com