Jose Dávila

In 2017 LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) commissioned Jose Dávila the creation of a sculptural project that would interact in close proximity with the city of Los Angeles and its inhabitants. The result was a large-scale modular sculpture that moved through different landmark sites and neighborhoods of Los Angeles. The sculpture consisted of a 2.5 meter high cube made with 40 individual pieces made with concrete. The work was initially presented in its complete form at West Hollywood Park and then the different modules were disseminated across the city. The nature of the work was relational and interactive with the public, the previously blank surface of the concrete pieces ended up covered with graffiti and other interventions. After three months the pieces were brought together and the assembled cube was presented with all its modifications for one last time at West Hollywood Park.

Jose Dávila studied architecture in the 1990s at the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Occidente in Guadalajara, Mexico. In different interviews the artist has valued this initial education however he prefers to consider himself a self-taught artist, involving an intuitive research of art history and different influential artists such as Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein and Jannis Kounnellis.

Jose Dávila (born 1974 in Guadalajara, Mexico) is a Mexican multidisciplinary artist. Mainly a sculptor, Dávila also works with two-dimensional media such as painting, drawing and prints. His work encompasses different topics and concepts such as the tradition of modernism in the arts, notions of balance and equilibrium manifested through sculptural creation and the politics of representation and recognition within visual cultures. Dávila currently lives and works in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Jose Dávila belongs to a prolific generation of artists from Jalisco, including other names such as Jorge Méndez Blake and Gonzalo Lebrija. The creation of the first international art fair in Mexico, called Expo Arte and presented in Guadalajara during the nineties represented the triggering event that turned this local artistic scene into an internationally-driven and vibrant community. He also co-funded and co-directed the independent art space "OPA" or "Oficina para Proyectos de Arte" (Office for Art Projects) which became an influential space for presenting the work of cutting-edge international contemporary artists in Guadalajara. Artists like Pipilotti Rist, Anri Sala, Yutaka Sone and Mario García Torres exhibited in this space which was located in the top floor of Condominios Guadalajara, a tower built in the 1950's and that for many years stood as the only high-rise structure in the city.