Juan Davila | the artist

Biography and art, auction, artworks, interview, statement, website:

Juan Davila
Much better late than never, Juan Davila’s recent retrospective, which consisted mainly of a selection of his paintings since the mid-1970s, was a thrillingly bombastic, high-keyed and elaborately staged visual assault. More than two decades ago, Davila’s multi-panelled work Stupid as a Painter (1981–2) – featuring Kiss of the Spider Woman graphics, an image of Marilyn Monroe masturbating and a crucifix perilously near a vagina dentate – was the subject of a high-profile censorship scandal after it was removed from the 1982 Sydney Biennale…

Juan Davila
His paintings are a mix of Latin-American magic realism, sexual diversity, pop culture and Oz kitsch. In The Flower Vendor, a witch-doctor hermaphrodite sports a Qantas corset and takes a bejewelled koala for a stroll…

Juan Davila
Juan Davila was born in Chile in 1946 and moved to Melbourne in 1974. He soon established himself as a significant presence on the Australian and international art scene. His work was the subject of a survey exhibition at the Drill Hall Gallery in 2002, a major retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney in 2006 and the National Gallery of victoria in 2007. Davila’s work has featured in a wide range of significant group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including the prestigious Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany, in 2007…