Ian Davenport

Ian Davenport was born in Kent, United Kingdom and graduated Goldsmiths College in 1988. In the year he graduated from Goldsmiths, he participated in the Damian Hirst-cureated FREEZE exhibition which first brought together many of the Young British Artists. This exhibition has been a great opportunity to the young british artist for their prosperous future, and Ian Davenport also started to receive attention from the art world internationally. Many of Davenport’s works are made by pouring paint with injector onto MDF or aluminium panel surface that are flipped or tipped to move paint. He often employs household gloss paint in the background, meaning the viewer can see their own reflection in the work. It has been intended by the artist that viewers are able to see the reflection of oneself in the ‘color created by the artist’ without other material layers. Above the background, there is tension between the sense of orders and freedom made by ‘line painting’ method of paints spread and poured. The artist opened his first solo exhibition at the Tate Modern in London in 1990, and he was nominated for the annual Turner Prize in 1991. He is currently working as a prominent contemporary artist. His work is the Tate Modern in London, the British Council, the French Contemporary Art Fund, Zurich belt Kunstmuseum and Dallas in Texas, including the prestigious Museum of Art. In 2008, Ian Davenport had his first solo exhibition in Asia, Hakgojae Seoul.