Following their initial debut as collaborative painters under the name MRI in 1999, moniquemeloche is pleased to announce the long-awaited second solo effort by Robert Davis + Michael Langlois.
Slick portraits of rap stars and fashion models uncomfortably situated in a vacuous monochrome world have been replaced with masterful portraits and still-lives filled with the aggression and torment of heavy metal. Art historical references from Caravaggio to David to Thomas Hart Benton to Jackson Pollack are omnipresent – sometimes even in the same work. However, no matter how varied the imagery may seem, Davis + Langlois manage to maintain their allusion to entertainment and indulgence and most importantly the artists’ interest to make something beautiful and convincing. The artists speak about the image above, Meth Lab, “…as the perfect stand in for the painter’s studio — filled with chemicals and the ambition to create something that is both business and pleasure.” With a nod to author James Elkins’ discussion of artist studio as alchemist lab, Davis + Langlois subvert the more mystical issue by painting a space where Crystalmeth (or poor man’s cocaine) is home made – creativity gone astray but probably more profitable than art making!
Robert Davis and Michael Langlois met as undergraduate painters at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Davis was born in 1970 in Norfolk, Virginia and received his BFA from SAIC in 1997; Langlois was born in 1974 in Worcester, Massachusetts and earned his BFA in 1998. Davis + Langlois live in Chicago and also work with Vincent Dermody and Rebekah Levine under the moniker Law Office – a curatorial collaborative team that has organized exhibitions and performances together since 1997. Law Office will once again inhabit the Zing Magazine booth at Art Chicago 2002 and host a special event during the fair…
