Carlos Dávila was born in Lima, Peru.
He studied at La Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Lima, Peru, Pratt Graphic Center, and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in New York City.
In collaboration with a group of archeologists, Carlos Dávila worked to reconstruct of the fifteenth century Chimu Kingdom city known as Chan Chan, located in northern Peru.
Public art Installations
City of Providence, Rhode Island
City of Suwanee, Georgia
Selected Exhibitions
American Biennale of Graphic Arts, Cali, Colombia
Ann Addison Gallery, New York City, NY
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Art Center Gallery, Lima, Peru
Associated American Artists Gallery, New York City, NY
Attleboro Museum of Art, Attleboro, MA
Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogota, Colombia
Biblioteque Nationale, Paris, France
Carlos Dávila Studio, Bridgeport, CT
Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY
City Lights, Bridgeport, CT
Discovery Museum, Bridgeport, CT
Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery, Stamford, CT
Forma Gallery, Coral Gables, FL
Fort Lauderdale Gallery, Ft Lauderdale, FL
Fred Dorfman Gallery, New York City, NY
Fundacion para las Artes, Lima, Peru
Galatea Fine Art, Boston, MA
Galeria de Arte 9, Lima, Peru
Galeria Enrique Camino Brent, Lima, Peru
Galeria Escala, Bogota, Colombia
Galeria Martha Faz, Santiago, Chile
George Segal Gallery, Montclair, NJ
Gibbs Art Gallery, Charleston, SC
Institute of Hispanic Art, New York City, NY
Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
Instituto de Arte Contemporaneo, Lima, Peru
International Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland
International Art Fair, Cologne, Germany
International Art Fair, Dusseldorf, Germany
International Art Fair, Frankfort, Germany
International Art Fair, Paris, France
International Print Biennale, Bradford, England
International Sculpture Center, Chicago, IL
International Sculpture Center, Hamilton NJ
Katonah Museum, Katonah, NY
Kerschner Gallery, Fairfield, CT
Larsen Gallery, Provo UT
Lever House Gallery, New York City, NY
Levitan II Gallery, New York City, NY
Miami Museum of Art, Miami, FL
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC
Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, France
Museum of Art & Science, Bridgeport, C
National Arts Club, New York City, NY
Park West Gallery, Southfield, MI
Pawtucket Center for the Arts, Pawtucket, RI
Portal Art Fair, New York City, NY
Rockhurst College, Kansas City, MO
Sadye Bronfman Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada
Silvermine Galleries, New Canaan, CT
Slocumb Galleries, Johnson City, TN
Stamford Museum & Nature Center, Stamford, CT
Stroll Gallery, Chautauqua, NY
Tennessee Fine Arts Center, Nashville, TN
Troup Gallery, Dallas, TX
Wenniger Graphics, Boston, MA
Worrell Smith Gallery, Westport CT
Permanent Collections
American Airlines, Fort Worth, TX
American Heart Association, Dallas, TX
Atlantic-Richfield Corporation, La Palma, CA
Bank of America, Los Angeles, CA
Banker’s Trust Company, New York City, NY
Bowery Savings Bank, New York City, NY
Delta Airlines, Atlanta, GA
Exxon Corporation, Irving, TX
Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance, Boston, MA
First National Citibank, New York City, NY
General Electric Corporation, Boston, MA
GTE Corporation, Irving, TX
IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY
Marine Midland Bank, Buffalo, NY
McGraw-Hill Publishers, New York City, NY
Pittsburgh National Bank, Pittsburgh, PA
Prudential Life Insurance of America, Newark, NJ
RCA Incorporated, New York City, NY
Saks Fifth Avenue, New York City, NY
Sentry Insurance Company, Stevens Point, WI
Shell Oil Corporation, Houston, TX
Sterling National Bank, New York City, NY
Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX
Union Carbide, New Haven CT
Volvo Corporation, Mahwah, NJ
Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL
Warner Communications, New York City, NY
Xerox Corporation, Rochester, NY
Yale University, New Haven, CT
Artist’s Statement
My fascination with ancient cultures started at the beginning of my career as an artist when I was invited to work with a group of archeologists on the reconstruction of the fifteen-hundred-year-old city of the Chimu civilization, Chan Chan, in the desert of northern Peru. My interest quickly spread to include the ancient cultures of Greece, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. The scientific accomplishments and inventions, the mathematical discoveries, the architecture and art, and the cuneiform and hieroglyphic writing of these and other ancient cultures all proved an ideal jumping-off point for my sculptures. There is universality in making marks, and creating and exploring form.
I am equally fascinated by space travel and exploration, and the science of the stars and universe. There are planes, lines, and forms in my work that suggest spacecraft, satellite trajectories, or computer circuitry. There is a machine-like quality to their appearance along with the timelessness found in the form of a three-thousand-year-old pyramid.
Many of the sites of the world’s ancient cultures are deteriorating due to environmental forces; others are in peril due to war or clashing ideologies. My hope is to bring attention to the value that every past culture has to the present and the future of all of us. The universal goals of exploration of the world around us, the development of math and science, and the advancement of language and art are as true today as they were thousands of years ago. The age of disparate civilizations is over and we must now move forward together, globally, as one. Recognizing our similarities (past, present, and future) leads to a deeper understanding of ourselves and of those we might have considered “other”.
With my work, I create a visual language that is at once personal and universal. This language abstracts the symbols and forms of ancient cultures and combines them with those of space travel and advanced technology. I feel that combining these results in a unique body of work that draws the viewer in and asks them to reflect on how the past informs the future, offering a sense of both the known and the unknown. I explore the relationship between the ancient and the modern, abstracting line, form, and color to create objects of veneration that
are at once familiar and alien, reflecting both the primitive age and the machine age.
