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In their latest series, The Brown Suit Chronicles, Davis & Davis depict the intra-office antics of a fictional, brown-clad, Wall Street tycoon, circa 1929. Using antique dolls and period sets, they chronicle their character's bumbling, psychopathic behavior in 29 darkly humorous color photographs.
Recalling the cinematic style and substance of Cecil B. De Mille, George Cukor, and Charlie Chaplin, this new photographic series was inspired by and is dedicated to Scott's late father, Russ Davis, who railed at Wall Street greed in letters and poems. Scott's maternal grandfather, a stockbroker during the Wall Street Crash of 1929, once advised Russ never to invest in the stock market, because, he said, "The game is rigged."
Los Angeles husband-and-wife team Davis & Davis have exhibited widely, most recently in Two Headed Monster, a 2-team exhibition with CamLab at the Torrance Art Museum. They also recently presented Dream Big, a new documentary series from their recent travels to Japan, at L2Kontemporary in Los Angeles. Other exhibitions include Dangerous Beauty, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, NY and Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, Italy; Not So Cute & Cuddly: Dolls and Stuffed Toys in Contemporary Art, Ulrich Museum of Art in Wichita, KS; Oh: You Beautiful Doll, Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York, NY; and Sea Change: The 10th Anniversary Exhibition at Marx & Zavattero. They have also had solo shows at the Riverside Art Museum and TELIC, Los Angeles as well as many other public and private venues. Their work is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Ulrich Museum of Art, the Jean Pigozzi Collection , California State University Los Angeles, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, Genentech, as well as many private collections. Their work has been reviewed in Whitehot Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Contemporary Magazine, 34 Magazine, ArtUS, Art Papers, SF Weekly, SF Bay Guardian, LA Weekly, Artweek, and many other publications. Their book Childish Things was published by Santa Monica Press in 2004. Both artists earned their MFA degrees at the California Institute of the Arts.
The Brown Suit Chronicles can be viewed exclusively online at www.marxzav.com/brownsuit.
