Nina Johnson is pleased to present Lace, an exhibition of new works by New York–based artist Rob Davis in collaboration with Chicago-based artist Deborah Handler. This marks Davis’s second exhibition with the gallery and features eight oil paintings alongside ceramic sculptures by Handler. The show grew out of a decades-long friendship and creative exchange between the artists, who met in 2001 while living in Chicago.

Davis describes his photorealistic oil paintings depicting objects and scenes of the American lower-middle class as “inherently honest—what you see is what you get.” His subjects—a box fan, a stack of dishes, record albums, a rocking chair—are rendered with meticulous attention to detail, making the familiar feel both intimate and uncanny. Handler’s abstract ceramic sculptures are formed through folding, stacking, and puncturing clay. “I never wanted to deal with the illusion that it was anything else,” she notes. “I want to make sure one always knows it’s clay.”

Though the exhibition’s title may be a nod to 17th-century Dutch painting, the reference surfaced more as coincidence than intention. “We talk about anything and everything,” they shared. “But somehow, our very different approaches—his highly rendered and mine more improvisational—end up in dialogue.”

Memory and material bind the two practices. “The way we both enter into making work is through memories,” Davis notes. “Mine are more apparent, but Deb’s—not so much.” Several works serve as anchors in the exhibition. Rocking chair, an early painting in the series, sparked their collaboration. Plates 1 plays on Dutch still life while echoing the display of Handler’s sculptures. Ad infinitum, inspired by a Carla Bley song, and Done not dine, featuring crazed glazing that resembles lace patterns, underscore the show’s shared sensibility.

The two artists recently discussed their collaboration.

Deborah Handler: I’ve been working on these pieces where I poke holes in the clay. The clay is so dense and the ability to just jam something through it was impossible to pass up. It allows light to pass through.

Rob Davis: I’ve been working on “lace” paintings. I’ve been looking at 17th-century Dutch painting. Those painters used lace as a signifier of wealth. My grandmother had cheap lace everywhere—curtains, doilies, and bedspreads. She definitely wasn’t wealthy. Your hole pieces make me think of a lace maker using a hammer as opposed to a bobbin.

DH: I’m no lace maker, but using ceramic brings up the idea of craft. The Dutch were all about light; I wanted more light and that’s why I perforated the clay. I also organize the pieces on tables in the studio. That reminds me of Dutch still-life paintings. Why are we talking about 17th-century paintings?

RD: Maybe because they painted the peasants and the wealthy?

DH: It’s always about the rich and the poor, the haves and have-nots. We just try to make sense and poetry out of that with clay and paint, I suppose.

Lace will be on view in the Front Gallery through November 15th, 2025.