Jo Davidson

Solastalgia and

the Weight of Light

11 - 22 June 2025

Opening Night

Friday 13 June | 6 - 8 pm

G3

Artist Statement

Jo Davidson’s recent paintings address the psychic unrest of our times. The Solastalgia tondos painted in acrylic on wood panel offcuts, offer portholes into places of solace from prevailing grief, positive portals to review and adapt to a shapeshifting world. The Weight of Light series on canvas attempt to see further into bigger stories, powerful shifts and balances, monumental hypocrisies, cause and effects on a world we tilt to the edge of our control, like treading on the tail of the tiger, asking  ‘What are we without the living world in all its intricate majesty?’

Artist Bio

Jo Davidson has been practicing art since well before her first solo show at Ray Hughes Gallery in Brisbane in the late 70s.  As a teenager Jo was tutored for 5 years by renowned South Australian artist Ruth Tuck, and studied at the SA School of Art through the mid 70s.  After residencies in Adelaide and Dalby Qld, Jo and artist partner Stephen Killick travelled extensively throughout Europe, for 3 years in the early eighties. They visited galleries, biennales, museums, collections public & private and carried out residencies in London, southern France, Amsterdam, and Venice Italy, and in the late 90s in Noosa and Gloucester.

They have lived and worked at their property Outer Magnolia, in Birdwood NSW midnorth coast hinterland, since 1986, establishing an artist in residence there in 2023.   Both their children Jasper(@Toggles sculptor/stage designer) and Nixi(@nixikillick artist/fashion designer) were raised in Birdwood and with their parents, participated in creating local performing arts and circus festival projects throughout their childhood.

Jo Davidson works in painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, sound, installation, poetry and CACD, and is an activist for environmental protection, climate change, and social justice.    She has held 18 solo shows and been in over 35 group exhibitions. Her work can be found in state, public and private collections around Australia and overseas.

From 2004 to 2019 Jo worked with CACD organization Beyond Empathy as lead artist and project coordinator on their maternal health engagement strategy - Mubali Sea of Bellies. She trained and employed local First Nations artists and Health Workers in the art of belly casting and translated the project from Moree throughout NSW communities and into SEQ and WA. In 2018 for NAIDOC Because of Her We Can, Jo curated and staged exhibitions of beautiful Indigenous painted pregnant belly casts in Brisbane, Lismore, Forster, Sydney, Melbourne and Moree.

Jo was a TAFE Art teacher for 14 years, on Fine Arts and Aboriginal Arts programs, and has held many arts workshops in festivals, regional galleries and schools around her region.     She painted a number of significant murals locally and worked with community and disabled artists on various public art projects in midnorth coast NSW, being involved in steering and creating a local sculpture festival for Port Macquarie through early 2000s.   

Now retired to their own studio practices, garden, beautiful country and grandchildren, Jo and Stephen also enjoy sharing the company and inspiration of other artists working at the cabin/studio residence they built together several years ago   @outermagnoliastudio.

Contact
Phone : (03) 9482 3550
mail@redgallery.com.au

Address
157 St Georges Rd
Fitzroy North, Victoria, 3068
Map

How to get here
Tram: Route 11
Stop 21 just north of Edinburgh Gardens

Melway Ref: 30B12
Parking in nearby streets

Bus: 504 (Reid Street)