Imbi Davidson
Chaos Theory

Sept 17 - Oct 18, 2021

Video walkthrough

Imbi Davidson

b. 1978 Kuarna Country, Adelaide SA.
Lives and works in Widjabul-Wiyabul Country, Corndale, NSW

Imbi Davidson is a visual artist living in the Northern Rivers region, New South Wales. Her work explores the interstices between painting, landscape, plants, textiles, abstraction and mark making.

Imbi's work is largely inspired by the experience and memory of the Australian landscape, finding expression in its myriad forms, patterns, patinas, contours and colours. Her abstract paintings are intuitive responses to these multiple elements, overlaid with juxtapositions of opaque and translucent layers, interspersed with expressive marks of wild colours.

Working with a range of mixed media from blood, rock, earth, pigment, paint, water and plants, Imbi is fascinated with found objects and paints on recycled objects, canvases, boards and surfaces.

Imbi was awarded an Australian Post Graduate Award to complete her Masters of Visual Arts, researching the art of native plants in Australia, with a focus on Indigenous and abstract representations of plants and the landscape. Her MA Thesis, The Casuarina Tree - Visual Translations of Native Plants and Art in Australia (2012), is catalogued in the National Library of Australia. Imbi was awarded an Australia Council Emerging Artist Mentorship Grant, to work with artist/ mentor India Flint.

Imbi’s recent exhibitions include; Five Painters (Byron School of Art); Skein- A Tangled Landscape (Dust Temple, Gold Coast); Sand.River.Blood.Bone (FirstDraft, Sydney), The Bridge (RAFT Artspace, Alice Springs); The Palisades - Stories of the Mountains (Northern Rivers Community Gallery); The Lost City (Chan Contemporary Artspace) & Lost At Sea (RAFT Artspace).

Imbi has travelled extensively throughout New Zealand, South-East Asia, India, Canada and Australia. Her work is held in numerous private collections.

View Artist CV

Exhibition views by Ashley Mackevicius

Imbi Davidson, Artist portrait

Imbi Davidson, Artist portrait

 
Imbi Davidson, Yellow Brick Road, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, Yellow Brick Road, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, Creation Story, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, Creation Story, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, Map For The Quiet Revolution, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, Map For The Quiet Revolution, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, Birthing Mother, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, Birthing Mother, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

 

“My process as an artist is untethered to convention, often working with found objects, recycled or repurposed paints, using colours I do not like, to create bold shades or tonal variations in each painting. In the studio, I allow the work to unfold unconsciously in a furious, emotive and sometimes hectic manner, riding the fine line between complete chaos and intuitive order. Often the works are mysterious and I feel like there is no control, yet upon reflection, clarity and cohesion emerge in unpredictable shapes and forms. It is a strange alchemy and beautiful chaos.

Colour has ultimately played an important role in creating this body of work. Striking reds, pinks and warm hues form the dominant colour scheme, and for me, tell a story of the feminine (women, blood, lipstick, power, girls, prettiness and birth). Juxtapositions of bold yellows, blues and grey green temper the angry fire of reds and pinks, while layers of marks, opaque and translucent colours are pushed and pulled across the surface. In the process of painting, colour for me personally becomes simultaneously a shape, song, tool, weapon, symbol, story, friend, foe, note, feeling and form.”

Imbi Davidson, 2021

Imbi Davidson_6.jpg
 
Imbi Davidson, Lungs Landscape Lockdown, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, Lungs Landscape Lockdown, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, Social Anxiety, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, Social Anxiety, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, Wild Fires & Silent Sex Crimes, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, Wild Fires & Silent Sex Crimes, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, Grabbed by the Pussy, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, Grabbed by the Pussy, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

“As an abstract painter, I am interested in the interplay between order and chaos, reason and intuition, hidden and open, linear and non-linear and using the canvas or surface as a place to muse out these tensions. Chaos theory provides a theoretical framework for understanding the paradoxical, multi-layered, abstract and often disjointed elements within my paintings.”

Imbi Davidson, The Butterfly Effect, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

Imbi Davidson, The Butterfly Effect, 2021, recycled paint on board, 100 x 120cm

 
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