“Drawing is the only thing I know that helps fend off insanity and, at the same time, embraces the wonder of existence. Plus, the act of drawing is, in itself, some sort of antidote to the times in which we’ve always lived. Humans are fabulous and terrible.”
God’s Chamber and Other Drawings presents a selection of works drawn from thousands of pieces held in artist and illustrator Paul Davis’s studio archive, many of which are being shown publicly for the first time.
For Davis, drawing is both compulsion and necessity — a way of navigating the contradictions of contemporary life. His work reflects on the unstable, often conflicting nature of being alive: an experience shaped as much by awe as by unease. As he puts it:
“Being alive is beautiful, tragic and hallucinogenic — an experience that never fails to surprise or intrigue. This is, obviously, dotted with the outcomes of infuriating policies made by a cabal of tremendously stupid — mostly male — ‘leaders’ that can lead to misery and much worse.”
Set against all this is the current obsession with AI — both funny and faintly alarming in its suggestion that we might be building something to replace ourselves. Davis’s drawings don’t try to explain any of it; they simply pay attention — picking out the odd, the familiar and the quietly ridiculous.
Paul Davis
Paul Davis is an acclaimed illustrator and artist whose work spans editorial, design and advertising for a wide range of high-profile clients. Alongside his illustration practice, he produces artworks that reflect his distinctive perspective on everyday life, often focusing on human interaction and casting a critical eye on aspects of contemporary culture that are frequently taken for granted.
He describes his work as “a response to the last 13.7 billion years.”
His work has been featured in publications including The New Yorker, Elephant Magazine, ArtReview, Vogue, The Guardian, Creative Review, Time Out, Print, Art+Auction, Dazed & Confused, i-D, Arena, Blueprint and Eye Magazine, among others.
Selected exhibitions include The Wapping Project and Gallery 46, London; Ginza Graphic Gallery, Tokyo; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and presentations with Soho House Group and Jealous Gallery, London.
About Colony Room Green
Located downstairs at Ziggy Green, Colony Room Green is an immersive reimagining of the original Colony Room Club — the infamous Soho members’ bar that operated from 1948 to 2008. Long regarded as both one of the ‘seediest spots in Britain’ and a bohemian centre of London life, the club attracted artists, writers and eccentrics including Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.
Curated by Darren Coffield — artist, former member and author of Tales from the Colony Room — the space pays homage to the spirit of the original: irreverent, intimate and defiantly unpolished.
With no phones permitted and a long-standing rule that members should simply not be boring (as decreed by founder Muriel Belcher), visitors are invited to step downstairs and into a version of Soho’s recent past — complete with its distinctive green walls and enduring sense of mischief.