photo by Olaf Growald
Ariel Davis
Ariel Davis is the type of person who won’t shy away from a good party. Who enjoys buying local goods and getting to know the people who made them. Who’ll meet you once and make you feel like you’ve known each other forever.
She is, in essence, a people person. And when you ask Davis to tell her life story, the highlights of her art career have been marked, unsurprisingly, by people. There’s Rome Milan, her painting mentor, who offered Davis one of her first jobs after college as a gallery assistant at the Milan Gallery downtown. There’s also Elaine Taylor, who brought Davis to the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, leading to another job running FWCAC’s satellite gallery, ART7, in West Seventh. Then there’s Nancy Lamb, for whom Davis worked as an assistant. Lamb was instrumental in connecting Davis with Artspace111.
Now, as Artspace111’s gallery manager, Davis hopes she too can be that person who pushes other artists forward. She’s currently engrossed in preparing for Artspace111’s 40th anniversary exhibition, whose first show opens Feb. 20. While she sorts through photos from the gallery’s bygone years, Davis finds inspiration.
“I see all these young artists that were painting together, working together, partying together, throwing renegade exhibitions in crazy warehouse space that would not pass a fire marshal’s inspection,” she says. “I think about how that relates to our artists today as inspiration for them to see that it is possible to continue to make work.”
Outside the gallery, Davis continues her own art. She’s slated to create a piece for TEXRail — a manipulated photography-based mural that will be made into six windscreen panels placed at the Texas & Pacific TEXRail Station platform. Davis is also working on murals for the North Side High School Mariachi Mural Project and Near Southside apartment Mistletoe Station.
And, for herself, she’s starting a series called Sunday Sessions, in which she’ll have anyone who’s interested “just sit with me and present themselves to me however they want, and I’ll paint them.” Her goal is to complete 30 portraits by the end of the year, which she intends to sell at an exhibition.
“I want to get back to basics in my work and paint from life,” she says.
1. Ariel and husband, Koby Hicks, share a moment at The Modern. 2. Five minutes of fame with WFAA during MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival. 3. Ariel helped build the entryway at last year’s Fortress Festival. 4. City Council member Ann Zadeh, painted by Ariel. 5. A mural Ariel created for TX Whiskey. 6. Ariel and Koby at the Kimbell Art Museum Red Party.
