Peter Davis

Contemporary painter, Manchester, UK

About the Artist 

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Peter Davis is a social realist painter.

Zeitgeist, which means ‘spirit of the age’, is the name of his ongoing series of paintings that looks at our relationship with our tech. Personal technology is blurring our physical and digital worlds and making us fundamentally rethink what it means to be human.

His compositions focus on someone absorbed in their personal technology - whilst their bodies are physically present their minds are elsewhere. They hold a mirror up to what we have become and give us clues to what might lie ahead.

Peter strives for his paintings to feel technically beautiful. There is an intentional dichotomy between his technology-centric images and the traditional painting process. Through the materiality of the canvas’s surface and fine mark making, his artwork inherently points back to him as their author. A real brushstroke, unlike a virtual one, gives a visceral response that can’t be achieved with digital mediums, and, as there is no physical connection to the digital narratives, it allows for a more authentic discourse.
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Peter started this body of work in 2015 to reflect our increasingly addictive relationship with the tech that now dominates our lives. Seeing people connected to their devices 24/7 is so common that we don’t give it a second thought anymore. As the American writer, Henry Miller, puts it “What the painter sees he is duty-bound to share. Usually, he makes us see and feel what ordinarily we ignore or are immune to.”

Peter Davis is an elected council member of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts (MAFA) and has won numerous professional painting prizes and in 2017 and 2019 was shortlisted by a leading UK art magazine for Artist of the Year.

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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & AWARDS:

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018    Zeitgeist - Warrington Museum & Art Gallery
2017    Contemporary Portraiture - The Space at Cass Art, Manchester


GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020    Virtually Real - Norman Rea Gallery, York
2019    Warrington Contemporary - Warrington Museum & Art Gallery
2019    MAFA Autumn Exhibition - Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery
2019    RBSA Portrait Prize - ​RBSA Gallery, Birmingham
2019    Spotlight - ​Saul Hay Gallery, Manchester
2019    PS Mirabel Painting Prize - ​PS Mirabel gallery, Manchester
2019    GM Arts Prize - ​Bolton Museum & Art Gallery
2019    RBSA Prize Exhibition - ​RBSA Gallery, Birmingham
2019    A&I Magazine 'Artists of the Year' - ​Mall Galleries, London
2018    ING Discerning Eye - ​Mall Galleries, London
2018    Being allowed to look - ​Saul Hay Gallery, Manchester
2018    Aesthetica Art Prize - ​York Art Gallery
2018    GM Arts Prize - ​Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery
2018    RBSA Prize Exhibition - ​RBSA Gallery, Birmingham
2017    MAFA Small Works Exhibition - Portico Library, Manchester
2017    WSA 8th Biennial - Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead
2017    Warrington Contemporary - Warrington Museum & Art Gallery
2017    Three Counties Open - Burslem School of Art, Stoke-on-Trent
2017    Jacksons Open Painting Prize - Online
2017    A&I Magazine 'Artists of the Year' - ​Mall Galleries, London
​2016    Warrington Contemporary - Warrington Museum & Art Gallery
​2016    Waterside Open - Waterside Arts Centre, Sale


AWARDS
2019    SAG 99th Annual Exhibition - First Prize
2019    A&I Magazine 'Artists of the Year' - Finalist
2018    Aesthetica Art Prize - Shortlisted
2018    GM Arts Prize - Runner Up Prize
2018    RBSA Prize Exhibition - Third Prize
2017    WSA 8th Biennial - Third Prize
2017    Warrington Contemporary - People's Choice Prize
2017    Three Counties Open - First Prize
2017    Jacksons Open Painting Prize - Shortlisted to final 25
​2017    A&I Magazine 'Artists of the Year' - Finalist
2016    SAG 96th Annual Exhibition - Colourfield Gallery Award
​2016    Warrington Contemporary - Runner Up Prize
​2016    Waterside Open - Third Prize