Juan DAVILA

QAGOMA > What's On > Exhibitions > Past Exhibitions > The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8) > Artists > Juan DAVILA

Born 1946, Santiago, Chile
Lives and works in Melbourne, Australia

Over the past 30 or more years, Davila's consistent interrogation of cultural, sexual and social identities has resulted in a rich and provocative body of work. His recent paintings, six of which are exhibited in APT8, draw on a vast array of references, among them the visual iconography of nineteenth-century advertisement posters in Paris, with bold, graphic forms and texts in typefaces or fonts invented by Davila. Hung as a group against walls painted with a design and colours specified by the artist, they continue to address themes from recent politics and history, particularly the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia. The use of literal and metaphorical symbols — such as barbed wire to represent detention camps, and the marginalised figure of mixed gender and race — recurs throughout Davila's practice as a potent symbol to address the structures against which we define and construct our sense of self and belonging.