Introductory essay for Leigh’s latest show at The Nine British Art. October 22
Really enjoyed visiting Leigh Davis again in his Staffordshire studio and writing the introductory essay in the catalogue for his latest exhibition at The Nine British Art. It’s his strongest collection of abstract painting and sculpture yet, largely untethered from location and instead focussed on feel, structure and expression. I’ll post the essay after the show ends – it runs from November 9th to 25th – but for now here’s an excerpt…
It’s telling that when one asks Davis the significance – or indeed the meaning – of Boats At Newlyn, his response is not immediately revealed via words or explanations. Davis is more concerned with action, feeling, emotion. He instinctively grabs his sketch book and starts drawing.
“So look at this shape,” he says of an intriguing elliptical form on which he begins to work. “Straight away I know that that it needs something else on the other side to offer both a tension and a relationship. Then I start building up the layers from that initial structure – there might be some cross hatching here, for example – and very quickly I can feel the energy, purpose and form of a piece I’m working on.”
It’s a remarkable and special insight into Davis’s practice in 2022. Of the energy, possibility and distinctive style that has become common to all his work as he gradually moved away from reflections on specific places, landscapes and structures. Yes, some of the titles might nod to the Isles of Scilly (the arresting vibrancy of Lichen Yellow Form) or the Cornish coast (the beautifully balanced Three Boats, Cape Cornwall (cat no ?). But where Davis once would take pictures or sketches of these places and use them as reference points, now the motivations are all instinctive.
