Born in Belfast in 1968, Davidson studied Fine Art in the University of Ulster, graduating in 1991.
He is very well known for his large scale portraits of notable figures in Irish society including Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney and fellow Northern Irish artist Basil Blackshaw ( All sold in Adam's Irish Art Auction, December 12th 2018). These portraits have earned Davidson a number of accolades and international recognition, which in turn has led to numerous private commissions. The scale of the
works creates an immediacy between the viewer and the face of the sitter. We cannot focus on anything other than their features, the specificity of their faces magnified before us, calling for an in-depth examination of the surface.
His work also centres on urban landscape of his home city as well as the streets of Dublin. No Continuing City, his well-received solo exhibition at the Tom Caldwell Gallery in 2004, marked Colin Davidsons most extensive and concentrated engagement with his native city, Belfast, to that point. Amanda Croft commented in the exhibition catalogue that it is the architectural framework of the city as a whole, its intersecting network of roads, rivers and bridges, and its geographical setting that attracts him, not the social hustle and bustle of its inhabitants.
These cityscapes are usually dominated by its unusual aerial views combining the luminous light, with a complex geometric analysis of the streets. The large scale compositions enhance the sense of an extensive city expanding before the viewer on the canvas.
While the urban paintings are topographically accurate there are many areas of these paintings which function in a purely abstract manner and they become images that are true to the particular city on many different levels, concerned with the energy and nature of the city as a whole.
Davidson's work is part of many important collections in Ireland and abroad. He was elected as president of the RUA in 2012.
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