Scratch the Surface: Toni & Andrew Davey

Close Ltd are delighted to present the work of Toni and Andrew Davey for Somerset Open Studios this year.

Toni and Andy together have raised three children, each of them now working in their various ways as artists and designers. They both have over the years gained the respect of their community by their work as teachers and by their own artistic practice. They work from studios in their family home, a house that inspires and gives life to their purpose. They join the illustrious band of artist couples through their lifelong collaboration and endeavour: Picasso and Gilot, John and Yoko, Gilbert and George.

Andy's subject matter varies widely, drawing references from the history of art, sometimes to nature and landscape, the figure and portrait, to local events and to travel, a pragmatic approach proceeding to abstraction. He is showing a comprehensive installation of 50 works, an ongoing series, made during the pandemic: 'Untitled 2020/21'. The work strikes a balance between rule and gesture, deliberation and accident, and the chance ordering and positioning of the arrangement makes for random encounters.

Toni's meticulous pieces on paper, are drawn, scored, cut and then pushed into three dimensions, creating a perfectly silent and subtle tension. The work has always navigated her through a complex set of self-referential experiences that help her make sense of her past. Free-hand drawings on graph paper develop as three dimensional structures, and which in turn can become the subject of the drawing itself. Sometimes these diagrammatic works acquire a presence of their own. Their silhouette is enlarged to a more human scale that mirrors the viewer and enhances the effect.

Freeny Yianni and Sarah Watney would like to thank the Daveys for the wonderful lunches, conversations and visits that have led us on a journey of discovery and learning.