Pablo Dávila:
Why Did You Take My Watch?
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Kasmin presents the first New York solo exhibition of Mexico City-based artist Pablo Dávila (b. 1983), on view at 297 Tenth Avenue from February 27 through March 29, 2025. Pablo Dávila: Why Did You Take My Watch?features new works that iterate Dávila’s research-based process in various media. Employing a visual language to encapsulate complex systems, theories and ideas, Dávila’s works offer poetic reflections on the perception of time and space.
Pulling from the first line of Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker (1979) for the exhibition title, Pablo Dávila: Why Did You Take My Watch? reflects Dávila’s interest in the construction of time and space through art. The film, recognized for its otherworldly setting, analogues Dávila’s capacity to collate distinct moments in the works on view. Inspired by the words of American Science fiction writer William Gibson, “Time moves in one direction, memory in another,” Dávila’s works consider the natural force of memory as a guide to explore the progression of time.
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Included in the exhibition are several new Phase paintings series (2019–ongoing), Dávila’s celebrated series of meticulously perforated canvases that translate weather data into striking patterns and abstract compositions. Culled from different geographic locations at various points in time, Dávila’s works document the unrepeatable, spontaneous conditions of wind activity in the earth’s atmosphere. Nearby, a ten-foot-tall site-specific mural, composed of thousands of iron studs hammered directly in the gallery wall, emerges from a similar conceptual approach to the Phase paintings.
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Pablo DávilaA seemingly simple request, 2025obsidian, in two parts17 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches, each
45 x 45 cmInspired by physicist Lee Smolin’s Writings on the principle of the identity of the indiscernibles, “A seemingly simple request” presents two spherical sculptures sourced from the same rock of obsidian. Despite their common origin and near-perfect symmetry, each work is unique as two objects occupying different physical spaces can never actually be identical, just as two moments in time cannot be identical. The universe is then greatly shaped by the seemingly simple request that it not contain two identical objects. -
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About Pablo Dávila
Pablo Dávila (b. 1983, Mexico City) explores the perception of time and space with his singular multidisciplinary practice. Drawing on a minimalist approach, his work is shaped by influences from science, music, poetry, cognitive science, and physical phenomena, exploring themes of perception, the transience of time, and historical interpretation. He has exhibited at the Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; the Aichi Triennial, Aichi Museum of Art, Japan; Museum of History in Geneva, Switzerland; Museum of Contemporary Art, Monterrey; OMR, Mexico City; Kasmin, New York; The Pill, Istanbul and Paris; José García, Mexico City and Mérida. Pablo Dávila lives and works in Mexico City. -
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Pablo Dávila:
February 27 – March 29, 2025 297 Tenth Avenue, New York
Why Did You Take My Watch?Pablo Dávila: Why Did You Take My Watch? features new work that iterates Dávila’s research-based process in various media. Employing a reduced visual language to encapsulate complex systems, theories and ideas, Dávila’s works offer poetic reflections on the perception of time and space.
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