Ronald Davis
Artist
Ronald Davis in 1963. Photo by Steve Sokol. Image courtesy of Ronald Davis
Ronald Davis was born in 1937 in Santa Monica, California, but grew up in Wyoming. In the early 1960s, he attended the San Francisco Art Institute where he painted abstract expressionist canvases. In 1964 he moved to Los Angeles where he had his first solo exhibition at the Nicholas Wilder Gallery. While working in Los Angeles, he developed his technique of using colored polyester resins and fiberglass to create shaped, geometric canvases. The bold colors and allover patterning in these works suggest Davis’s abstract expressionist roots and contribute to their illusion of deep space and volume.
Works of Art
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Black Tear, 1969, Ronald Davis. Molded polyester resin and fiberglass. 60 ½ x 136 in. The Robert A. Rowan Collection, Pasadena, California. © Ronald Davis
Explore the Archive
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Video: Ronald Davis speaks about his work, June 2011
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Video: Joe Goode, Charles Cowles, Ed Moses, and Hans Neuendorf speak about Nicholas Wilder and his gallery, 2009–11
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Hard Edge group exhibition with works by Ronald Davis and Judy Chicago at Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles, May 1964. The Getty Research Institute, Gift of Rolf G. Nelson, 2010.M.38.2
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Installation view of Ronald Davis's Dodecagons and Cubes series at Nicholas Wilder Gallery in Los Angeles, 1969. Image courtesy of Ronald Davis
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Interior view of Ronald Davis's studio at Pico Boulevard and 4th Avenue in Los Angeles, 1966–72. Photo by Bob Jaye. Courtesy of Ronald Davis
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Ronald Davis's studio at Pico Boulevard and 4th Avenue in Los Angeles, 1966–72. Photo by Bob Jaye. Courtesy of Ronald Davis
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Exterior view of Nicholas Wilder Gallery at the time of Ronald Davis's first solo exhibition in 1965. Image courtesy of Ronald Davis
