Viewing Lake: Ian Davenport at Waddington Custot

British artist Ian Davenport’s latest exhibition presents a grand showcase of contemporary art, featuring his most ambitious work to date and largest ever floor work. The focal point of this exhibit is the awe-inspiring pair of artworks, “Lake 1” and “Lake 2” Developed in his studio in Peckham. These monumental liquid like paintings dominate the gallery space with their mesmerizing lines of poured paint cascading down the walls, converging into a vibrant eight-meter expanse on the gallery floor.

Davenport’s artistic journey, leading to these colossal installations, marks a natural progression in his career, as he explores larger and more ambitious scales. The artist’s creative process involves flooding the gallery with color, allowing the paint to behave like a sculptural entity manipulated by both him colour gravity. This interplay between painting and sculpture is a recurring theme in Davenport’s work.

In his own words, Davenport reflects on this new work, stating, “Working on a large scale brings out themes in painting that interest me, allowing the paint to behave more like a sculpture, with a pronounced relationship to the floor.” This exhibition not only showcases Davenport’s mastery of colour, form, and scale but also invites viewers to delve into the intriguing fusion of painting and sculpture in contemporary art.