Ron Davis
Ronald Davis was born in Santa Monica, CA, and raised in Cheyenne, WY. He studied at the University of Wyoming (1955-56) and worked as a sheet metal mechanic (1957-59) before training at the San Francisco Art Institute (1960-64), having found his calling as a painter. He began as an abstract expressionist, but by 1963 he evolved to a hard-edge geometric style. He had his first museum and gallery exhibitions in 1964, his first solo exhibition in New York in 1966, and his first international exhibition in Kasel, Germany, in 1968.
Throughout his career, Davis has experimented with traditional and new technologies and materials in his art practice: composing electronic music and sculpting with sound using a Buchla synthesizer; learning the fundamentals of silkscreening, lithography, etching, and paper making; designing paintings on Macintosh computers in using 3-D rendering and animation; using encaustic (wax) medium on wood to create illusionistic shaped compositions; printing digital works on aluminum; and painting on expanded PVC plastic. He has exhibited widely and consistently in the U.S. and internationally in both commercial galleries and public institutions. His work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Chicago Art Institute, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Art, the Harwood Museum of Art, the Tate Gallery, and the National Gallery of Australia, among others. Davis’ Malibu studio and home, designed and built between 1968-1972, was the first residential commission for now master architect Frank O. Gehry. Davis began relocation to New Mexico in 1990, where he built, in collaboration with architect Dennis Holloway and anthropologist Charley Cambridge, a complex of living and studio buildings based on the Navajo dwelling hogan. He continues to study and incorporate new software, new technologies, and new drawing and rendering techniques into ideas for paintings.
Throughout his career, Davis has experimented with traditional and new technologies and materials in his art practice: composing electronic music and sculpting with sound using a Buchla synthesizer; learning the fundamentals of silkscreening, lithography, etching, and paper making; designing paintings on Macintosh computers in using 3-D rendering and animation; using encaustic (wax) medium on wood to create illusionistic shaped compositions; printing digital works on aluminum; and painting on expanded PVC plastic. He has exhibited widely and consistently in the U.S. and internationally in both commercial galleries and public institutions. His work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Chicago Art Institute, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Art, the Harwood Museum of Art, the Tate Gallery, and the National Gallery of Australia, among others. Davis’ Malibu studio and home, designed and built between 1968-1972, was the first residential commission for now master architect Frank O. Gehry. Davis began relocation to New Mexico in 1990, where he built, in collaboration with architect Dennis Holloway and anthropologist Charley Cambridge, a complex of living and studio buildings based on the Navajo dwelling hogan. He continues to study and incorporate new software, new technologies, and new drawing and rendering techniques into ideas for paintings.