Nathan Cash Davidson, burlesque in which we’ve thrown it on its head

Nathan Cash Davidson makes paintings featuring such diverse figures as King Henry VIII, Mr. Punch, George Bush and Ali G. Historical and popular cultural characters and the artist’s own family members meet animated gargoyles and mournful mythological creatures in otherworldly forests, cathedrals, desert islands and council estates; boldly rendered in vital, swirling jewel colours. Burlesque in which we've thrown it on its head is an encounter with Cash Davidson’s prodigious talent for figuration and architectural detail, and his wry and irreverent wit. These accomplished and confident works evoke a rich interior landscape whilst also offering an often bleak and discomfiting perspective of the contemporary metropolis. Cash Davidson’s writing – ‘…Armoured objects selected never last / faster / than the star/ Reflect the future and the past in one’ – echoes his preoccupation with leveling history, mythology and the 21st century. The organic narrative development of his imagery is also reflected in his use of the written and spoken word: plants unfurl; buildings spring up and sprawl out; figures appear. Of his poetic visual treatment of his urban surroundings, Cash Davidson has been said to possess ‘the potential to return the power of myth to “things drawn on walls”’.