Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis
October 21–November 19, 2016

Adams and Ollman is pleased to announce a two person exhibition with artists Taylor Davis and Nancy Shaver.

This exhibition brings together the work of two artists who are deeply invested in objects and images, both found and made, and the relationship among their form, material and function. Exploring sculpture’s ability to be both spatial and two-dimensional, while illuminating the capacity for surface to describe form, the work of Taylor Davis and Nancy Shaver is visually democratic, straightforward and rhythmic. Both bodies of work are fragmentary, yet allude to an internal logic as the artists collect, organize, and present shape, image and pattern.

Taylor Davis' mobiles, constructed from a single sheet of aircraft birch plywood, serve as a three-dimensional guide to the connections between diverse images the artist cuts from books, catalogues, magazines, and encyclopedias. Stencils of red and green oil paint heighten the complexity of the non-linear relationships made between the cutouts and the form. Experimenting with material, image, color and space, Davis compels one to consider the role orientation plays in establishing hierarchies within subjective perception. The work, as a whole, situates the viewer in a place of uneasy alignment between various systems and components, all which circuitously exist on an exquisitely constructed mobile whose arrangement is dictated by chance.

Much like Davis, Shaver uses form to create relationships between materials, textures and patterns. Pairing handmade works alongside found materials and conventional fabrics, Shaver arranges patterned cubes into a kind of geometric collage. Shaver’s use of the grid gives structure to her serendipitous material choices. The usual associations between mass produced objects and handmade artwork are leveled, as use and value are distorted and decontextualized. Having been stripped of their existing identity, Shaver’s sculptures are non-hierarchical as they nod to the visual pleasure that can be found not only in works of art, but also in everyday objects.

Taylor Davis and Nancy Shaver have worked on various projects and exhibitions over the past several years, but this is the first time either of their work has been exhibited in Portland, Oregon. The exhibition is organized by Conny Purtill, an artist and book designer living and working in Los Angeles, CA.

Taylor Davis (b. 1959, California) lives and works in Boston, MA. She received her Diploma of Fine Arts from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1984 and her BS of Ed from Tufts University in 1985. She received her MFA from Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College in 1997. Her work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art and White Columns, both in New York, NY; Brooklyn Museum, NY; The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Institute of Contemporary Art and Museum of Fine Arts, both in Boston, MA; The Contemporary Austin, TX; Office Baroque, Antwerp, Belgium; and UTS Gallery, Sydney, Australia. She was the recipient of the Museum of Fine Arts Traveling Scholarship, Milton and Sally Avery Scholarship at Bard College, Massachusetts Cultural Council Sculpture Grant, Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston Artist Prize, St. Botolph Foundation Grant, Anonymous Was a Woman, and Radcliffe Fellowship. Her work is included in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, and Fogg Art Museum. Davis has been a teacher at Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College since 2002.

Nancy Shaver (b. 1946) lives and works in Jefferson and Hudson, NY. She received her BFA from Pratt Institute. Shaver’s work has been exhibited in the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT; MoMA PS1, Queens, NY; MoMA, White Columns, Feature Gallery, Curt Marcus, and Derek Eller, all New York, NY. She has been visiting artist at Massachusetts College of Art, Vassar College, Harvard College, and Rhode Island School of Design. Shaver has been a teacher at Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College since 1999. Shaver is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and Anonymous Was A Woman. In 2010, Shaver was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. In addition to running her shop, Henry in Hudson, NY, Shaver is the co-director of Incident Report, an experimental viewing station for visual projects.

installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


installation view: Nancy Shaver and Taylor Davis


Nancy Shaver
Roof, Fence, 2001
wooden blocks, brown paper, metallic paint and china marker
10 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 3 inches
NShaver 04


Nancy Shaver
Duck Wrestle, 2016
wooden blocks, dress fabric, T-shirt fabric, flannel, paper, Flashe acrylic, house paint and oil pastel
14 1/2 x 14 1/2 x 3 inches
NShaver 01


Nancy Shaver
Texture, 2013-14
wooden blocks, Japanese fabric, fabric, paper, Flashe acrylic, house paint and oil pastel
2 parts, each 22 1/2 x 17 x 3 inches
NShaver 03


Nancy Shaver
Gray Storm, 2016
wooden blocks, dress fabric, paper, Flashe acrylic and house paint
14 1/2 x 14 1/2 x 3 inches
NShaver 02


Nancy Shaver
2 Yellow Ls, Box and Box, 2001/2016
wooden boxes, cardboard boxes, paper fabric, Flashe acrylic, house paint, burlap, duct tape and sand
30 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches
NShaver 05


Taylor Davis
REDGREENBLACKWHITES (BRWG southeast), 2016
poplar, canvas, and oil paint
54 x 64 x 1 1/4 inches
TDavis 01


Taylor Davis
REDGREENBLACKWHITES (BRWG north), 2016
poplar, canvas, and oil paint
54 x 64 x 1 1/4 inches
TDavis 02


Taylor Davis
Mobile #2 (surfer, skunk, dirt, apron), 2016
birch plywood, collage and oil paint
30 x 30 x 40 inches
TDavis 03