Mark Davis

Artist Info

A Glow Along the Shorline, MD603 - 22 x 28 x 20

Silver Moonlight, MD600 - 8 x 12 x 6 1/2

Underwater Movement, MD227 - 15 x 32 x 12

Overt Happiness, MD495 - 13 3/4 x 20 3/4 x 14 1/2

Dragon's Breath II, MD585 - 16 x 13 x 10

Besides the Point, MD555 - 4 x 12 x 8 1/2

Miss Angelique. MD580 - 11 1/2 x 7 x 2 1/2

The New World Order, MD408 - 26 x 40 x 22

Biography

Mark Davis was born in New Haven, CT in 1954. He attended Goddard College in Plainfield, VT and worked initially as a jeweler, specializing in sterling silver and brass. From 1988-1995 he was commissioned twice a year to do mobiles and sculptures for window displays at Tiffany's on 5th Avenue, Madison Avenue, and SOHO in New York. He has continued making mobiles and sculptures since that time.

Style

Davis' work was initially inspired by Alexander Calder. He began making mobiles while he was still a teenager, and copied jewelry created by Calder for his friends. His work also shows the influence of Joan Miro, with its light curved forms often painted bright colors. "In effect, his mobile sculptures are incarnations of nature's rhythms married with his imagination's wanderings. Davis melds his marvelous sense of balance with a new sense of whimsy and playfulness."

Statement

"My first sculptures were ... all about design and form. Initially, I tended towards the jointed pieces that I had been constructing in jewelry…they were very pure in the same way that the jewelry had been. These were the works that I initially brought to the the Gallery. From that point… my work has changed drastically. All of the subtle influences that I have had throughout my whole life -- Miro, Matisse, Calder -- have all had an effect on me. I realize now that those are the artists that I have always responded to." I enjoy the fact that my work is about joy, that it makes people happy and that it makes them smile. I'm not an artist whose art deals with "heavy" issues. Life is heavy and serious enough. I like what I make to be joyful and light, entertaining and contemplative.

Honors

Davis has been collected by the Lexus Corporation, Liberty Mutual Corporation, Rose Museum, Brandeis University, Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards, Richard Chamberlain, Howard Stern, and Gary Trudeau.

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