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Hyde Park Art Center
The HPAC is the oldest alternative exhibition space in the City and boasts a long record
of education outreach in the community.
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4833 rph
If A:List is an online space to explore and connect with art and artists, then 4833 rph is our home base.
In a blending of exhibitions and education, 4833 serves as a gathering place, resource, archive, and
program space located at the new Hyde Park Art Center.
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Laura Davis
Artist Information
Born: 1971 Holland, MI
Currently Resides: Chicago, IL
Contact Information:
lauraanndavis (at) gmail (dot) com
www.lauradavis.info
Medium(s) Worked in:
Sculpture
Metalwork
Textile
Jewelry
Mixed-media
Pen/Pencil
Installation
Interdisciplinary
Artist CV:
coming soon…
Available for Commission: Yes
HPAC Exhibitions
2005, Takeover
2005, 2004, Just Good Art
Artist Statement
Working primarily in sculpture and drawing I attempt to reconfigure our emotional relationship with objects.
p(callout).By combining docile and feminine materials with modernist forms I make a kind of insider outsider object.
Using costume jewelry in a way that explores its formal qualities I exaggerate its actual physical qualities, allowing the function to follow its form. When something once valued, such as jewelry or a pet, is no longer wanted and is discarded it transforms into something that appears dark or menacing. Domesticated animals that have returned to a wild state tend to exemplify the aspects of that animal that people usually find unsavory. I am attracted to these particular kinds of dirty. This is what I refer to as to the patina of the discarded.
In my piece for the Hyde Park Art Center Ratio: Monks and Mica Caves I continue to honor the discarded in the form of an installation that sculpturally approximates one of Chicago’s feral animal populations and their living conditions. As homage to the Monk Parakeets of Hyde Park and their genius for adapting to our harsh Chicago climate I’ve created a portrait of them using a ratio of craft materials and simple structural systems. The birds, made by tying triangles of felt into two knots, are bright green and expressive but also eyeless and wrinkled. The nests are machine stitched vinyl triangles haphazardly creating a kind of organic geodesic dome.
Artist Bio
Laura Davis (b. 1971, Holland, Michigan) is an artist who works primarily in sculpture that reconfigures our emotional relationship with objects. Her sculptures as well as drawings and installations initially appear docile but further inspection reveals the work to be often dark or menacing. Laura holds a MFA from the University of Chicago (2004) and a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art (1996).