The Cat Street Gallery is delighted to welcome back Australian painter Paul Davies for his third solo show at the gallery, Blow-Up. Referencing the 1966 film of the same name, Blow-Up is a series of works based on photographs and memory and, as always with Davies’ paintings, the works are devoid of human form. Primarily based on abandoned architecture, the voyeuristic nature of the work creates a tension between the subject and its audience.

The artist creates delicate hand-cut paper stencils that provide a perspective, content and detail within a painterly abstract environment. The paintings juxtapose the frozen ideals of domestic architecture with the universal natural environment, and investigate these sites as portraits of space. The works take inspiration from painterly, photographic and sculptural practices by artists such as: David Hockney, Jeffrey Smart, Peter Doig, Jon Cattapan and Rachel Whiteread.

Davies graduated from the College of Fine Arts UNSW, with a Major in Sculpture. Shortly after graduating from COFA in 2000 he discovered the graffiti and street art practices of Sydney based artists and began employing these techniques to the sculpture he had studied. Davies is currently studying a Masters by research at the College of Fine Arts, which investigates the relationship between the built and natural environment in his work.

Image: © Paul Davies, The Cat Street Gallery