Ian Davenport

(British, born 1966)

Ian Davenport is an English abstract painter known for his use of household gloss paint in bright colors. Born July 8, 1966 in Sidcup, England, Davenport studied at Goldsmiths College alongside notable peers such as Damien Hirst, Michael Landy,Gary Hume, and Sarah Lucas. He graduated in 1988, and that same year was included in Hirst’s seminal Freeze exhibition—the first gathering of the loose group that would become known as the Young British Artists. Much of Davenport’s work is made by pouring or dripping paint down an angled surface, as in the Days Like These exhibition at Tate Britain in 2003, where Davenport created a mural by dripping lines of colored paint vertically down a wall using a syringe. Other work features paint poured on a flat surface, relying on the effects of gravity and weight to move color into abstract compositions. In 1991, Davenport was nominated for the Turner Prize. He lives and works in London, England.