Phil Davis (b. 1988, Pasadena, CA) lives and works in Los Angeles. He received a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2012. Drawing from his background in theater, Davis’s paintings consider the nature of costume and performance, particularly how a performer physically and emotionally assumes a persona. His work explores the delicate choreography between realism and artifice, examining the ways identity can be constructed, inhabited, and performed.

Rendered with the distilled quality of a production prop and illuminated as if by a stage spotlight, each painting reflects the incomplete representation inherent to popular imagery. Though loaded with familiar associations and clichés, Davis approaches these tropes without judgment, allowing each figure to remain open to interpretation and the imagination of the viewer. Together, the paintings form an autobiographical yet elusive portrait of the artist, a realm where symbols retain their mysteries and the bizarre emerges from the commonplace.

His works have been shown internationally in solo and group exhibitions at Shoot the Lobster, New York; Mountain View Mausoleum, Altadena; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Rachel Uffner, New York; Lower Arroyo Seco Trail, Pasadena; Nara, Japan; and Amager Strandpark, Copenhagen, Denmark, among others.