Moyra Davey

Moyra Davey (born 1958) is an artist based in New York City. Davey works across photography, video, and writing.

Early life[]

Moyra Davey was born in 1958 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.^[1] Davey received a BFA from Concordia University in 1982 and a MFA from the University of California, San Diego in 1988. In 1989, she attended The Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program.

Career[]

Since the late 1970s, Davey has built a body of work composed of photographs, writings, and video. She was previously a faculty member at the Bard College International Center of Photography Program.^[2]

Select solo exhibitions[]

• 1984 – The Photography Gallery, Toronto // Saw Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario
• 1985 – Agnes Etherington Arts Center, Kingston, Ontario
• 1989 – Optica, Montreal
• 1994 – Moyra Davey, Peter Doig, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York // American Fine Arts, Co., New York
• 1996 – American Fine Arts, Co., New York
• 1998 – Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, California
• 1999 – American Fine Arts, Co., New York
• 2002 – Goodwater, Toronto
• 2003 – American Fine Arts, Co., New York
• 2006 – Monologues (with Julia Scher), Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio^[3]
• 2007 – Fifty Minutes, Goodwater, Toronto^[4]// My Place, TART, San Francisco, California
• 2008 – Long Life Cool White, The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts^[5]
• 2009 – My Necropolis, Murray Guy, New York^[6] // My Necropolis, Arch II Gallery, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg
• 2010 – Speaker Receiver, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland^[7]// My Necropolis, Goodwater, Toronto^[8] // My Necropolis, lllingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art + Design, Canada
• 2011 – Les Goddesses, Greengrassi, London^[9]
• 2012 – Spleen. Indolence. Torpor. Ill-humour, Murray Guy, New York^[10]
• 2013 – Ornament and Reproach, Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver // Hangmen of England, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
• 2014 – Ornament and Reproach, Murray Guy, New York^[6] // Burn the Diaries, MUMOK — Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna; // Camden Arts Centre, London
• 2015 – You're a nice guy to let me hold you like this. greengrassi, London // The Revenants, Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam
• 2016 – Hemlock Forest, Bergen Kunsthall, Norway // 7 Albums, Murray Guy, New York
• 2017 – Empties, Galerie Buchholz, Cologne // Portrait / Landscape, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin // Hell Notes, Portikus, Frankfurt
• 2018 – Hell Notes, Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefeld // "1943", Galerie Buchholz, New York // Bring My Garters/Do Nothing, experimenter, Kolkata
• 2019 – Scotiabank Photography Award: Moyra Davey, Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto // Les Goddesses, Art Institute of Chicago // i confess, greengrassi, London
• 2020 – Moyra Davey Peter Hujar, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin (with Peter Hujar) // The Faithful, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa // Lanak/Obras/Works, Artium, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

Prizes and awards[]

• 2004 – Anonymous Was A Woman Award^[11]
• 2010 – The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award^[12][13]
• 2018 – Scotiabank Photography Award^[14][15]
• 2020 – John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship^[16]

Public collections[]

Davey's works are in the collections of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri;^[17] the Museum of Modern Art,^[18] New York; the Tate Modern,^[19][20] London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art,^[21] New York; the Art Institute of Chicago,^[22] the Whitney Museum of American Art,^[23] New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,^[24] New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,^[25] the Museum of Contemporary Art,^[26] Los Angeles; the National Gallery of Art,^[27] Washington, DC; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and the Art Gallery of Ontario,^{[failed verification]} Toronto.^[28]

Publications[]

• Mother Reader: Essential Writings on Motherhood. Edited by Moyra Davey (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2001). ISBN 1583220720
• The Problem of Reading (Los Angeles: Documents Books, 2003). ISBN 0974260509^[29]
• Long Life Cool White: Photographs and Essays by Moyra Davey (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008). Introduction by Helen Molesworth. ISBN 9780300136463
• Copperheads (Toronto: Byewater Bros. Editions, 2010). ISBN 9780978078935
• Speaker Receiver (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2010). Essays by George Baker, Bill Horrigan, Chris Kraus, and Eric Rosenberg, and an interview by Adam Szymczyk. ISBN 9781934105207.
• The Wet and the Dry (Paris: Paraguay Press, 2011). Edited by castillo/corrales and Will Holder. ISBN 9782918252115
• Empties (Vancouver: Presentation House, 2013).
• Burn the Diaries (Brooklyn: Dancing Foxes, 2014). ISBN 9780985337728
• I'm Your Fan (London: Camden Arts Centre, 2014).
• Les Goddesses / Hemlock Forest (Brooklyn: Dancing Foxes Press, 2017). Introduction by Aveek Sen. ISBN 9780998632605
• Gold Dumps and Ant Hills (Berlin: Toupée, 2017). ISBN 9783981735710
• Index Cards: Selected Essays (New Directions, 2020). Edited by Nicolas Linnert. ISBN 9780811229517
• I Confess (Ottawa/Brooklyn: National Gallery of Canada and Dancing Foxes Press, 2020). Essays by Dalie Giroux and Andrea Kunard. ISBN 9780888849960

References[]