Jo Davenport

Born 1957, Australia

Lives & Works – Albury (Wiradjuri)

Jo Davenport’s lyrical oil paintings inhabit the liminal resting place between real, imagined and remembered landscapes. For the artist, the notion of space is not defined by perspectival strictures and physical form, but conceived as a scintillating constellation of memories and emotions. Through layered colour, impulsive mark making and erasure, the artist brings the transient into view, invoking the complexities of memory and representation. This mnemonic and tectonic construction of the image conflates fact with imagination, spawning an abstraction that conveys both an intellectual and sensual way of experiencing the landscape.

Jo Davenport has completed extensive studies including a Master of Fine Arts and a Postgraduate Diploma of Visual Art at the Victorian College of the Arts, and an Advanced Diploma in Fine Arts, Riverina Institute. She was the recipient of the Chippendale World Art Residency (2017) and Artist in Residence at Hill End, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (2015). Davenport has also been a finalist in a number of prestigious awards including the Paddington Art Prize (2017), Tattersalls Landscape Art Prize (2013), R&M McGivern Award (2012), Langridge Painting Award (2011), Shelmedine Acquisitive Art Award (2010), Alliance Francaise Award (2010) and Pigment Gallery Award (2010) at the Victorian College of the Arts. Her work is held in many important collections including Artbank, University of Melbourne, Norman Foster Club House Tai Po, Hong Kong, Wangaratta Regional Art Gallery and ArtStream Investment Group, as well as private collections in Australia, UK, France, Canada and Japan.