Jack Davidson and Alex Da Corte Exhibitions in New York Explore Intentional Double Homage

Two concurrent New York exhibitions by Jack Davidson and Alex Da Corte demonstrate a shared practice of intentional double homage, where artists reference already referential imagery. Davidson's show 'love, mistake, promise, auto crackup, color, petal' at Theodore: Art in Brooklyn from March 7 to April 12, 2015, features pop-abstract paintings with graphic design elements. The Scotsman, based in Barcelona, employs motifs from heraldry and trade logos, connecting to Conceptual Abstraction. His work 'you said something i’ve never forgotten' (2014) references both Kazimir Malevich and a Television album cover. Alex Da Corte's installation 'Die Hexe' at Luxembourg & Dayan on East 77th Street ran from February 26 to April 11, 2015. The Philadelphia-based artist, raised in Venezuela, created a layered environment responding to the gallery's history with The Mamas and The Papas. His installation incorporates borrowed works by artists like Robert Gober, Mike Kelley, Haim Steinbach, and Bjarne Melgaard. A key element includes Melgaard's reworking of Allen Jones's furniture, placed alongside a reproduction of Poussin's 'Midas and Bacchus' from Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film. This creates a dense network of appropriations, linking high and low cultural sources. Davidson's approach is described as whimsical and pop, while Da Corte's is meticulously structured, with both artists engaging deeply with art historical and pop cultural references without direct commentary.