Davis Cone

New York, NY – Beginning October 3, 2013, Forum Gallery will present an exhibition of recent works by the eminent photorealist painter, Davis Cone.  The exhibition includes all of the work the Artist has completed since his last New York exhibition in 2005.  In the ten paintings and two mixed media prints on view, Davis Cone meticulously documents art deco movie theatres on present-day main streets across America as he demonstrates the vitality and inspiration they bring to their communities. Art Decomovie theatres and their meaning have been Cone’s only subject since he began his career as an artist in the 1970’s.

To create each painting, Davis Cone goes to the location and observes and photographs the theatre over several days.  His concentration on the atmosphere of the scene and the season gives a manifest strength to his unique ability to recreate the weather conditions and the time of day in each painting.  In the current exhibition, we see theatres in early morning, at dusk, at night and during the day; in the chilly midwestern rain and the intense heat of the California desert.  A golden, harvest moon warms the Heart theatre (Effingham, Illinois), while the clouds of evening chill the River Oaks (Houston, Texas).   The unfolding, unscripted natural drama surrounding each theatre is Davis Cone’s principal focus and concern.

Davis Cone was born in 1950 in Augusta, Georgia.  His work is widely exhibited internationally as well as in the U.S., and has been included in exhibitions in Berlin, Tokyo, Lisbon, Madrid and Nuremberg, as well as Atlanta, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and New York.  Two published books are devoted exclusively to Davis Cone’s paintings, Popcorn Palaces (Harry N. Abrams, Inc. New York) and Hollywood on Main Street (The Overlook Press, Woodstock).  His work is included in every major volume on photorealist art, including the forthcoming Photorealism in the Digital Age by Louis K. Meisel (Harry N. Abrams, Inc. New York).