Davina Semo
Desire (monoprint #1), 2020

relief ink on Rives BFK
24”H x 30”W

ARTWORK STATEMENT:

When the reality of shelter-in-place sunk in, I wanted to make works that could be made start to finish in the studio. One of the things that came out of this was that I started making monoprints. This work riffs on previous bodies of work that plotted points in different constellations, networks, and grids using ball bearings, actual holes, and drilled passageways. These new monoprints and bronze reliefs come out of related studio processes and investigations. The graphic element in these reliefs is a repeated image of a flower/gear/hole. As flowers, these buds signal change, growth, ground cover, and landscape. As gears, each shape works together as a machine, indicating movement, change, density, anxiety, production, and function. As holes, these openings become portals, whirlpools, passageways, tunnels, letting in color and language, darkness and light. The shapes combine to create a forcefield, a collection of intensity, of stress, of meditation, thought, a psychological map, a web of connections, movements based on one another, cooperation, in sync.

Artist Bio:

Davina Semo (b. 1981, Washington, DC) creates artworks that explore profound tensions within contemporary natural and man-made environments. Her sculptures engage audiences with tone, texture, sound, and light—heightening awareness of how man-made systems, material structures, and industrialization profoundly affect our physical and emotional bodies. Semo has a BA in Visual Arts from Brown University and an MFA from University of California, San Diego. Semo is represented by Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco.