Michael Davis Art

"My Cloud pastel drawings are born from the unique geography of my studio at the south/westernmost tip of Los Angeles where the coastal cliffs and famous Sunk-in City drop into the P...

Cloud Drawing-1 is a pastel study of a cloud formation over Torrance. The central dark cloud metamorphosed into twisted shapes as it assented then blue sky broke through changing the...

The Rare Earth artworks grew out of my investigative research in 2009 while working on a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (SARF) application. That resulted in a body of work titled “Imagos”– photo/journalism images that capture a moment in history and immediately place the viewer at that moment in time. While navigating Landsat records of Earth's land surfaces from space I discovered large areas of disturbed landscapes. These were immense open pit mines at numerous locations world wide, many of which were Rare Earth mines or REEs. The mining and processing to separate the rare earth elements is an environmental conundrum. On one hand these elements are in extremely high demand and necessary for electric vehicles...

Copper From the series, Elements, are three artworks of precious commodities, combining their beauty of material with the exquisite simplicity of numerical Pi. These artworks draw yo...

Silver From the series, Elements, this sculpture references the Bolivian mines that produce much of the worlds silver production ARTIST'S STATEMENT Michael Davis My sculptures and...

Blue Boy The Blue Boy, paired the Lawrence portrait, Pinkie, at the Huntington Library, are icons of high art. Here, I rendered Blue Boy as a turned form ...

The Day The Earth Stood Still (TDTESS) collection of drawings, wall artworks and installations focuses on images which captured pivotal events that are etched in memory and subconscious, ie. the Moon...

Style: Contemporary, Modern, Conceptual Small study for the series “Rare Earth"

Style: Contemporary, Modern, Conceptual Small study for the series “Rare Earth"

The coloration and construction of the artwork projects this disk toward the viewer and floats the work off the wall both visually and psychologically. Doak was an aviation visionary...

Gold From the series, Elements, this sculpture references the proliferation of gold mines in third world countries. ARTIST'S STATEMENT Michael Davis My sculptures and installations...

Referencing industrial space detritus and the allure of artifacts, this disc floats free from the constraints of the wall and mesmerizes with a hypnotically beautiful jeweled center....

Quote from RT on style subject matter. From the model image the actual artwork evolves in the studio. What was once a model is now a reference. The act of making, testing material compatibility, critical evaluation, chance, gesture and the Illuminating accident often shift the final concept. Ine artwork has a lite of its own. The Rare Earth artworks grew out of my investigative research in 2009 while working on a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (SARF) application. That resulted in a body of work titled “Imagos”– photo/journalism images that capture a moment in history and immediately place the viewer at that moment in time. While navigating Landsat records of Earth's land surfaces from space I discovered large areas of disturbed landscapes. These were immense open pit mines at numerous locations world wide, many of which were Rare Earth mines or REEs. The mining and processing to separate the rare earth elements is an environmental conundrum. On one hand these elements are in extremely high demand and necessary for electric vehicles...

"Invisible, Nauru Island" is part of the "Rare Earth" series of artworks related to the extraction of materials used in our modern technology. Each artwork includes an archival image...

History has always informed my art practice. My early years were spend in a suburb of Los Angeles, Downey, CA. The epicenter of the US Space program in the 50’s 60’s and 70’s. I was ...

Blue Boy The Blue Boy, paired the Lawrence portrait, Pinkie, at the Huntington Library, are icons of high art. Here, I rendered Blue Boy as a turned form ...

They are built from a collection of found materials, fabrics, wallpapers, digital imagery, paint and precious metals. The digital Landsat image is positioned in juxtaposition to the ...

ARTIST'S STATEMENT Michael Davis My sculptures and installations are physically and symbolically multilayered mechanisms that react to environments and man-made inventions from the...

Reflection A mass-produced plaster bust of JFK faces an anonymous cast Asian female with slightly mirrored gold ecliptic glass between them that reflects t...

They are built from a collection of found materials, fabrics, wallpapers, digital imagery, paint and precious metals. The digital Landsat image is positioned in juxtaposition to the ...

I begin each artwork with research. I navigate the Landsat archived images or mining operations world-wide. The collection or images is curated to those which share a similar visual ...

The mining and processing to separate the rare earth elements is an environmental conundrum. On one hand these elements are in extremely high demand and necessary for electric vehicles...

I began to incorporate these Landsat images into a new body of work titled "Rare Earth." Each Rare Earth artwork includes an archival image of a specific mine rendered in classic 3D (anaglyph) off-registration referencing mid-century exuberant optimism, geopolitical history, cultural signifiers, symbolic design patterns and phenomena The formal and elegant composition belies the actual relationship of the cause and effect of rare earth mining. --- The Rare Earth artworks grew out of my investigative research in 2009 while working on a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (SARF) application. That resulted in a body of work titled “Imagos”– photo/journalism images that capture a moment in history and immediately place the viewer at that moment in time. While navigating Landsat records of Earth's land surfaces from space I discovered large areas of disturbed landscapes. These were immense open pit mines at numerous locations world wide, many of which were Rare Earth mines or REEs. The mining and processing to separate the rare earth elements is an environmental conundrum. On one hand these elements are in extremely high demand and necessary for electric vehicles...

While navigating Landsat records of Earth's land surfaces from space I discovered large areas of disturbed landscapes. These were immense open pit mines at numerous locations worldwide, many of which were Rare Earth mines or REEs. A digital image of a rare earth mine in Madagascar in combination with Landsat imagery, vintage damask wallpaper...

LLC and mining operation being bought up at an alarming rate by international consortiums. The Rare Earth artworks grew out of my investigative research in 2009 while working on a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (SARF) application. That resulted in a body of work titled “Imagos”– photo/journalism images that capture a moment in history and immediately place the viewer at that moment in time. While navigating Landsat records of Earth's land surfaces from space I discovered large areas of disturbed landscapes. These were immense open pit mines at numerous locations world wide, many of which were Rare Earth mines or REEs. The mining and processing to separate the rare earth elements is an environmental conundrum. On one hand these elements are in extremely high demand and necessary for electric vehicles...

Halo, Drawing, study for a sculpture. ARTIST'S STATEMENT Michael Davis My sculptures and installations are physically and symbolically multilayered mechanisms that react to environ...