Miles Davis in Liverpool

Static Gallery, Roscoe Lane
12th - 15th June 2008

Reviewed by Colin Serjent

I have to admit that before being informed about this exhibition I had no idea that the legendary jazz musician Miles Davis was an accomplished visual artist.

This unusual show at the Static Gallery offered a fascinating view of his oil paintings and drawings, with most of the work being created after he suffered a stroke in 1982.

They are enclosed in a hotchpotch of frames, which makes a change from the often uniform and mundane frames you see at a lot of exhibitions.

The other aspect of the show that appealed to me was the use of easels to display some of the work. It was a much better way than having all the art stuck on a wall.

My particular favourite pieces were a pair of large-scale paintings titled C.P.W. Mix, which contained a lot of engaging abstract forms, which were shown off to full effect with the use of a lot of accompanying white space.

Other works that caught the eye were the series of line drawings, which reminded me to some degree of the art of Ralph Steadman. They were minimalist and geometric, enriched with muted colours.

Another plus point to this exhibition was the inclusion of two metal sculptures of Davis playing the trumpet, made from recycled materials by Danish artist Ron Posthuma.

Unfortunately the show only ran for four days, which was a pity; it deserved a much wider audience.

Photograph taken by Ian Jackson from Art In Liverpool.

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Comments:

Comment left by Sandra Gibson on 27th June, 2008 at 13:52
Four days! What a shame!! I listen to Miles on summer evenings -especially on summer evenings, and from what you have said about his paintings and what I see in the photograph I would have liked his work -space and movement and on easels as if still on-going.

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