The New Yorker
April 4, 2005
Davis's small, scattered figure studies at first suggest pages from an Old Master's sketchbook, despite their distinctly un-classical poses - they urniate in choreographed arcs, brandish severed heads on pikes, or are broken into parts and stacked as in a Dali painting. Drawings in colored pencil and ink are sharply defined, while his watercolors disintegrate into ghostlike immateriality. A new element in this show is an ingenious set of multicolored wax heads, made from casting rubber Halloween masks. The effect of these grimacing figures is uncannily like his drawings, even though they're essentially ready-made. Through April 16. (KS Art, 73 Leonard St. 212-219-9918.)