MARFA — Old rusty twisted wire is everywhere in West Texas. It blends so seamlessly with the environment few people even notice it. Years ago, artist Joe Davis found his medium to draw inspiration for the beautiful and fascinating exhibition of works at the Marfa Studio of Arts Gallery.
With reverence to the original twisted, tangled shapes and rusted surfaces, he has used these wire fragments in many different media, including sculptural objects, screen prints, felt panels and drawings. For him there seems to be a limitless supply of Marfa wire and limitless ways to bring them to life again.
This fascination with discarded, rusty wire in Marfa began several years ago. The distorted, flattened-out material was first pinned to the walls of his Marfa studio. Interesting arrangements started to form, but it took several years before he could figure out how to express the personality of this wire in different ways. Eventually, drawings of it became his primary outlet of expression.
Some compositions are formal. He thinks of them as portraits, where either single or multiple pieces of mangled wire are centered on the page with generous white space surrounding the drawing. Another approach positions pieces of wire scattered randomly across the paper, often bleeding off the page.
This unusual art material is also used to create three-dimensional objects and wall installations. This is a way of showing off the wire in its actual, raw state. Though not perfect, it attains a certain status when displayed on a wall or pedestal.
He has been attracted to the material’s simple beauty but has always been curious about its original purpose. His goal with using wire as a medium was to elevate what most people see as trash to what he sees as beauty displayed at eye level. The discarded and ignored can become a thing of beauty. Davis doesn’t think of it as recycling when he draws it on paper or hangs it on a wall. Rather, it’s as if it has been manufactured for the purpose of display and enjoyment. Simple. Just a thing of beauty to admire. So, the work of Marfa wire is not done. It is incomplete at least and just beginning to reveal its purpose at best.
Joe Davis is a graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He founded and operated Street Level Studio, a graphic design firm just outside of Chicago, for over three decades. During some of that time he and his wife operated a contemporary art gallery and have been avid art collectors forever. Now retired, he has returned to his love of making art. They have owned a house in Marfa for 15 years and on frequent trips to Marfa have collected discarded wire found around town.
Davis’ work can be seen at the Marfa Studio of Arts, 106 E. San Antonio St. The show runs through June 10, 2023.