Barriers and Preservers
Face of Activism
Contemporary realist and figurative painter, Margaret Davis, focuses on portraying adolescents — an age characterized by profound brain growth, idealism, and plasticity. Her artworks offer visual responses to the cultural and political challenges that Gen Z has had to navigate.
Davis employs a distinctive layered technique in her paintings. The first layers are mixed media, incorporating transfers, spray paint, and screen prints. A layer of clear or toned resin is then poured over these images, producing a translucent effect. This underlying imagery is often taken from or relates to the teen’s environment. The figures within her pieces are developed with oil paint, at times realistically and at other times just emerging from their background. Amidst the figures, both tangible and illusory barriers populate the exhibition, along with symbols of optimism such as life preservers and buoys.
For Davis, many of the paintings act as storyboards – ideas for a narrative not yet chronicled.