Nathan Cash Davidson. Sphere of Clarity

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In June Grey Gallery presents Sphere of Clarity, a solo exhibition of Nathan Cash Davidson’s paintings in Vyner Street, curated by Laurence Noga. Two new works about the Russia-Ukraine war and a painting referencing the funeral of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh will be shown alongside a survey of ten previously unseen paintings from the last decade.

Nathan Cash Davidson was born in London in 1988 and graduated from Wimbledon College of Art in 2010. He began to exhibit his large vivid paintings in 2007 at a squat in Peckham and thereafter with the dealer Hannah Barry. In 2010 he was the youngest artist to be given a solo exhibition at the prestigious Parasol Unit, one of the high temples of serious contemporary art in London.

Davidson uses imagery from a wide and surprising range of sources; Alan Sugar points from the television screen while Richard the III on his horse trots alongside in a neighbouring work. Characters from myth, history and news jostle for position in these set pieces, the exhilarating juxtapositions are at once confounding and mysterious. The paintings present familiar characters without judgement or hierarchy and once they are removed from context by Davidson's hand a timeless innocence descends on them as they look out from these pictures with a new detachment.

Davidson is also a rapper, the torrent of words typical of that musical genre follows through to his painting. These are intuitive pictures and the imagery comes thick and fast. These new works are Davidson's take on science fiction, the Old Masters and the war in Ukraine among other things. As the age of AI approaches, this work seems prescient and pertinent.