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Almine Rech

Jose Dávila

Jose Dávila's work aims to materialize physical phenomena such as gravity, resistance, and equilibrium. These relations and their effects are reflected in the behavior of the materials he uses and in how his works achieve to maintain a symbolic and physical balance thanks to the reciprocity and the dialogue between forces, which manifest through precarious balance and moments of containment. 

Searching for the poetic nature inherent to these structural intuitions – which often seem to hint an imminent collapse – Dávila produces artworks in which tension and stillness, geometric order and random chaos, fragility and resistance, are rendered through a wide range of materials and media.   
Jose Dávila studied architecture at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (Guadalajara, MX). He is a self-taught artist with an intuitive training.  

His work has been exhibited at Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China; Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico; Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, Germany; Museo del Novecento, Firenze, Italy; Getty’s PST LA/LA Triennial, Los Angeles, CA, US; Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona, Spain; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany; Marfa Contemporary, Marfa, TX, US; Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA, US; Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, Netherlands; Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands; Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo MUAC, Mexico City, Mexico; Caixa Forum, Madrid, Spain; MoMA PS1, New York, NY, US; Kunstwerke, Berlin, Germany; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, US; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; MAK, Vienna, Austria; Fundación/Colección JUMEX, Mexico City, Mexico; Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL, US; Museu de Arte Moderna, Sao Paulo, Brazil; among others.  

His work is part of international public and private collections such as Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, US; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Inhotim Collection, Brumadinho, Brazil; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany. Dávila has been featured in international publications such as Cream 3, ed. Phaidon; 100 Latin American Artists, ed. Exit and the monograph The Feather and The Elephant, ed. Hatje Cantz.  

Jose Dávila has been awarded with the 2017 Baltic Artists’ Award in the UK and is a 2016 Honoree of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C., US. Dávila has received scholarships and funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Sistema Nacional de Creadores del Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Mexico.  

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