Stacey Davidson
Biography
Stacey Davidson was born in Detroit in 1961 and grew up in Bowling Green, Ohio. After receiving her MFA from the University of Cincinnati, she pursued a teaching career while continuing to devote herself to studio work. Primarily a painter, Davidson began creating dolls to complement her portraits. She was attracted to the idea of a doll because she could portray it acting in ways a figure in a seated portrait could not.
In the 2006 Dollwork series, Davidson places her dolls in a variety of contexts, with and without her paintings as a backdrop. She even built a stage for the dolls and created a play in which they appeared. The artist relishes the fact that people ask her where she got the dolls; that they appear to be “begotten, not made.” Davidson has stated that in all of her art, her focus is character and the human heart.
Stacey Davidson’s work has been exhibited nationwide, including solo exhibitions at Franklin Art Works, Minneapolis; Gallery 2 P.P.O.W., Inc., New York; The Carnegie Arts Center, Covington, KY; and Brodie Gallery, UC, DAAP, Cincinnati. Group exhibitions include Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago; I’m Not Here: Constructing Identity at the Turn of the Century, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA MCAD / McKnight Artists, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis; and Art as Book as Art, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore.