About
Davey Whitcraft’s practice is centered on the creation of light and sound landscapes, spanning a range of media from video, photography and sound installation. The articulation of the contextual ambience of specific environments is a primary concern for Davey. The work draws upon the American West’s vast visual landscapes of expansive color and atmosphere. This aesthetic sensibility is utilized in exploring new contexts and locales, and in the hunt for a sublime color, or a sound palette, hiding in a natural or a man-made environment.
The work embraces the technical rather than rejecting it. Davey uses digital and technological innovation to expand upon the idea of seeing. This affords an extreme depth and precision to color and gradients that are all but impossible with traditional media. While Davey’s practice is informed by the traditions of the Light and Space works of the 1960s, he uses hyper-contemporary tools and methods - 4k video capture and projection, high resolution dye sublimation printing on fabric and paper and multi-channel digital sound technologies.
The landscape photographs, video installations and sound works are radically abbreviated in terms of detail. Recognizable references are highly edited or removed altogether, allowing the viewer to experience pure color, light and sound. Across all media, Davey holds the experience of light and dimension to be at the center of his practice, and is a reflection of a search for the infinite and immaterial.
Davey Whitcraft holds an MFA from University of California Los Angeles and a BFA from California College of the Arts, San Francisco, California. His work has been included in museums including MOCA in Los Angeles, California, SF MOMA, LA Architecture + Design Museum, San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, Godwin-Ternbach Museum NY, Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana, Slovenia and exhibitions including Subliminal Projects Los Angeles, California, 323 Projects Los Angeles, California, Rietveld Art Academy Amsterdam, Netherlands, One-Off Moving Image Festival Copenhagen Denmark, Yami-ichi Brussels, Belgium, London West Gallery London, England and the Leap Second Festival, Norway.
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At Ars Longa, Vita Brevis San Francisco with La Douleur Exquise, 2022