artnexus #114

José Dávila (Guadalajara 1974) trained initially as an architect. The reference is abundantly present in his work, which reflects the foundational principles of architectural construction. “I didn’t like the practice of architecture as much as I liked its nature and its ideas,” Dávila says. “My work has always been closely connected to construction materials, space, and light.” 

“In art, I am an autodidact. I educated myself through reading. Researching and reviewing the history of art is an important component of my work.” * These words point towards the artist’s interest in the work of the modern masters who were key in the exploration of geometry and its relationship with space. Dávila pursues explorations ranging from neo-concrete art to minimalism, expanding their scope, and disturbing their initial representations. These are based on the works by artists like Richard Serra, Donald Judd, and Josef Albers, among others. They are also related to architects like Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe; Mathias Göeritz’s emotional architecture. “I want to comment on artworks in order to generate meaning that the originals did not possess. I take those artworks as the starting point for personal commentary.” * In that dynamic, we encounter works that transform the basic elements of drawing— point, line, and plane—into volumes, rendering the two-dimensional an element of sculpture.  

Some of the constants in the research process that Dávila follows in the creation of his work are structure, compositional balance, mastery of space, and opposing forces in the use of materials. They allow him to set industrial and organic materials in dialog with one another, in a game that can foster the encounter of marble and crystal, steel and rock, in search of a balance of opposites where tranquility and tension, fragility and resilience can coexist poetically. In the work featured in our cover, from the Joint Effort series, Dávila puts in play his ability to explore those elements, underscoring the relationships between the materials and the composition of forms in space.

* Código magazine, interview by Ricardo Porrero, 2018.

IVONNE PINI