09/10/2026
Jose Dávila’s cut-out series began in 2008, initiating an ongoing body of work informed by his questioning of art historical canons. Reappropriation has become a main feature of Dávila’s artistic concept: he engages with familiar and readily identifiable images drawn from both the visual arts and popular culture, establishing an extended dialogue with figures who have shaped the canon of modern art, including Pablo Picasso.
By progressively dissecting the photographic reproductions of these works, Dávila removes the principal subject, drawing attention to the structure of the image. In this way, the fractured and decomposed language of Cubism is transferred to the very surface of the image itself. The technique also draws upon the Mexican folk-art tradition of papel picado, which Dávila adapts to contemporary art in order to explore the generative potential of negative space.
When the central image has been excised, how can the composition continue to stand, or even exist in its own right? Yet the surrounding space suddenly assumes a more active role, animating and completing the void. Through this act of removal, Dávila simultaneously pays homage to and critiques Picasso, an icon of twentieth-century art.
Image: Jose Dávila, Untitled (Nu accroupi), 2026, archival pigment print, paper: 80 7/16 x 58 3/8 inches, framed: 82 3/8 x 60 1/4 x 3 inches © Jose Dávila Courtesy: the artist and Sean Kelly, New York
Jose Davila
