Known for his colorful “puddle” paintings, Ian Davenport has gone to great lengths in the name of experimentation, once even using an industrial wind machine to blow paint onto a canvas. In his recent works, the artist has been applying paint with a syringe, allowing it to run down the support (often steel) in distinct bands and puddle at the base. The precision of the syringe allows him to focus more on color and the sequence of color rather than “on the paint and how it flows.” Davenport’s vivid pigments and unconventional methods recall the stain paintings of Morris Louis, who also allowed gravity to play a role in the outcome of his works. Davenport graduated from Goldsmith’s College in London in 1988, the same year he exhibited in the “Freeze” exhibition curated by fellow Young British Artist Damien Hirst.
