Curatorial statement

I became aware of Daria Davidson's paintings when we shared a residency at Sainte Columbe sur l'Hers this past fall. I was writing and she was painting--we both took lots of photographs and discovered that we shared a sensibility for close-ups of textured surfaces that often gave clues to histories long past. Since returning from our residency, we have kept in touch. I am drawn to Daria's paintings because she uses doilies as a central material in building her compositions. Intricately crocheted and dainty, doilies were usually a woman's craft but they also resemble the many rose windows of the soaring Gothic cathedrals that dot the many cities and medieval villages of France. The rain and wind-swept facades of these Christian fortresses is also at play on the surfaces of Daria's paintings. History and memory, fortresses that housed inflexible religious beliefs, and a decorative needlecraft practiced by generations of women; comfortably find residence in her compositions.

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