JOSE DÁVILA
THE SPACE BENEATH US

BASS MUSEUM, COLLINS PARK, MIAMI BEACH, USA
5 DECEMBER – 8 DECEMBER 2012

THE SPACE BENEATH US is a landscape work that interacts with human activity and scale to become part of the daily life of a park. The installation is a spatial take on the geometric structures of the Homage to the Square paintings and prints by Joseph Albers. The project continues experimenting with different media to reinterpret Albers’ pieces, a constant interest shown in Dávila’s body of work. Once more, the artist explores the possibility of reproducing these colored square paintings in a three-dimensional way, as well as subverting painting to sculpture and contemplation to activity.
The work is built with traditional handmade ceramic from Tlaquepaque, Mexico. This choice of material echoes the variety of components such as ceramic tiles, glass, vinyl, and metal; that the artist has implemented in other appropriations of Albers’ color schemes, in some cases situating his practice under the term “Neo-povera”. This work refers to Albers’ work and his influence on Minimalist and site-specific sculpture.
Commissioned by Art Basel Miami Beach.
THE SPACE BENEATH US, 2012
Hand-cut ceramic tiles
800 x 800 x 120 cm

© Images Art Basel
© Courtesy of the artist and Art Public, Art Basel Miami Beach, 2012

FEATURED ARTIST

JOSE DÁVILA
Jose Dávila (b. 1974 in Guadalajara, Mexico) studied architecture at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente in Guadalajara, Mexico, however, he considers himself a self-taught artist, with an intuitive formation.

Jose Dávila’s work is a constant search for moments of shared reciprocity between contradictory elements. By means of a structural intuition, Dávila produces constructive situations in which tension and stillness, geometric order and random chaos, fragility and resistance, are fluctuating commonplaces for materials in continuous transformation.

Based on the specificity of the materials that he ...
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