Tim Davies is an artist whose work embraces a wide range of mediums from prints, painting and sculpture to interior decoration, fashion and tableware. His work has become successful because it connects with people on a strong positive emotional level with elements that have become a trademark of his art; vibrant colours and bold graphic lines. There are incredible movements and dynamics in all his canvases and prints, reflecting a fast but happy lifestyle, and carrying the liberated approach to art grounded in everyday life as we know it from the 1960s pop art movement.
Tim’s work is not based on critical reflection. It is more about showing elements of every day occurrences infused with associated light-hearted fantasies and daydreaming, bringing a smile to people’s faces and creating spaces that become triggers for positive emotions. Often, Tim brings a leisurely quality to the subject by depicting, for example, scooter-riders, pirates, robot or fantasy figures driving or jumping through an animated universe that might reach the stars. Fast cars speed along worldly avenues, big cruise ships are leaving sunny, palm tree-lined bays for exotic destinations; musicians are playing guitars, and whole skylines swing and jump to imaginary tunes connecting with the viewers' own feeling of musical adventure. Clearly, there is a characteristic musical quality involved that is further resonated in the fact that a wide range of world class recording artists keep commissioning Tim for CD cover artwork:Robert Plant, Al Di Meola, Lalo Schifrin, Pink Floyd, Ladysmith Black Mambazo are just a few names to mention.
The music television channel MTV also commissioned Tim to come up with the design for an animated title sequence, directed by renowned director Pete Bishop, winning the “Best International TV Programming Award” in New York in 1994.
Recording studios, music venues, restaurants and media agencies in London feature his artwork and concept murals, which also can be seen in public further across Europe, with commissions from museums, municipal and commercial organisations.
For the highly regarded Swiss custom-made snowboard brand Doorslammer he created a series of limited edition boards.
The London Transport Museum in Covent Garden features one of Tim's murals, created in late 2007. Recently his work has been seen on posters for Hannover's public transport system, on wine labels for Californian Napa Valley wines, and now his paintings and limited edition prints are to be found in the onboard galleries of the AIDA cruise Ships.
Since 2001, Tim has been designing for the German firm Ritzenhoff Cristal. Over the past decade his designs have become part of the Ritzenhoff tableware brand’s successful strive to further establish the name as the most dynamic quality force in the sector, combining functionality with fun in a language that crosses cultural boundaries and age barriers.
In November 2009 Tim took part in the "Mauerfall 2009" event in Berlin, painting a 2.5 meter high Domino, that, together with 1000 other Dominos created a Domino-Effect through the centre of Berlin and celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Based in Hannover, Germany after many years spent in London, Tim Davies is part of a contemporary pan-European art movement that reflects an optimism and dynamism previously associated only with American youth culture that now has become Europe’s very own. If one is asking the question whether there is such a thing as European art, then Tim’s work could be possibly the closest to an answer as it is created utilising geographical and socio-cultural anchor points from across the European matrix.
Wilfried F. Rimensberger
ThemaArt London