REG DAVIDSON
Haida/Canadian born 1954

AVAILABLE WORKS

Reg Davidson was born in 1954 in Masset, British Columbia. A member of the Eagle clan, he is an accomplished Haida carver, printmaker, singer, and dancer. He began carving back in 1972 at the age of just 18 years. Today he is an internationally acclaimed artist working in cedar and alder wood, silkscreen prints and exquisite gold and silver jewellery. He is possibly best known for his work with Robert Davidson, his older brother on works such as the Charles Edenshaw Memorial House Front and Posts, the Three Watchmen Totem Pole sculpture at the Maclean-Hunter Building in Toronto, Raven Bringing Light to the World Limited edition bronze sculpture for the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Quebec and poles and bronzes produced for the PepsiCo Kendall Sculpture Park.  

Reg comes from a long line of influential Haida carvers and artists. His great grandfather was the artist Charles Edenshaw, his grandmother the renowned weaver and button blanket sewer and designer Florence Davidson, his father Claude Davidson was a chief and important carver and educator and his older brother Robert Davidson is possibly the best known living Haida artist.  

Reg Davidson’s work has been published and exhibited around the world and can be found in many influential collections, including a totem pole commissioned by the artist Damian Hirst in 2006. A list of group and solo exhibitions are listed below. He continues to carve in his studio in Haida Gwaii.

Reg is also an accomplished singer and dancer with the Rainbow Creek Dancers, a Haida Dance group formed in 1980 by Reg and Robert.  Sharing this tradition is important to Reg.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

Native Talking Stick Show, Derek Simpkins Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, December 1993.

Miniature Mask Show, Altering Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia.

Eagle of the Dawn, Joint Show with Robert Davidson, Art Space Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Haida Ritual Art: The Insistent Present, Meridian Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1990.

Beyond Revival: Contemporary Northwest Coast Native Art, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1989.

Masks: An Exhibition of Northwest Coast Native Masks, Inuit Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1989.

Northwest Coast: Native American Art, Craft Alliance Education Center and Gallery, Saint Louis, Missouri, 1989.

Quintana Gallery - Northwest Coast Exhibitions, Portland, Oregon, 1987 and 1988.

Hands of Creation: An Exhibition of Northwest Coast Native Art, Inuit Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1987.

Potlatch Presents - Northern Comfort: Dempsey Bob and Reg Davidson, Potlatch Arts, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1982.

Pipes That Won’t Smoke; Coal That Won't Burn: Haida Sculpture in Argillite, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta, 1981.

The Legacy: Continuing Traditions of Canadian Northwest Coast Indian Art, British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria, British Columbia, and traveled across Canada and to Edinburgh, Scotland, 1980.

 Art Space Gallery: Twelve-Sided Wolf, Robert Davidson and Reg Davidson, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

Eight Foot Totem Pole, Private collection, Bahamas, 2000.

Reg Davidson, Workshops: Haida Whistles and Haida Apron Designs, University of Alaska-Ketchikan, April 1994.

Reg Davidson: Nine Foot Haida Pole, Haida dancing, slide show, Birmingham Alabama.

Reg Davidson, Workshops: Haida Rattles and Haida Design, University of Alaska - Ketchikan, February 1993.

Yaalth Tluu: Raven Canoe, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California, 1991.

Reg Davidson: Silk-screen Prints, Cafe Gallery, Old Massett, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, 1989 and 1990.

Thirty Foot Canoe, The Haida Project, San Francisco, California, 1990.

Eight Foot Pole, Watchman, Eagle, Frog Crests, Province of British Columbia for National Tour Association, Baltimore, Maryland, 1988.

Forty Foot Memorial Frontal Pole, K’aadsnee Cultural Longhouse, Masset, Haida Gwaii, BC, in memory of the late Claude Davidson and Robert Davidson Sr., 1989-90.

Eagle Memorial Sculpture, David Adam, Masset, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, 1988.

Reg Davidson: Masks, Prints and Blankets, Baya Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1987.

Thirty Foot Pole, Claude Davidson, Chief of Dadens, Masset, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, 1986.

Thirty Foot Pole, Three Figure Eagle Crest, Malaspina College for Tamagawa University, Japan, 1980.

Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, British Columbia. 

COMMISSIONS

1988 Eagle Memorial Sculpture, David Adam, Massett, Haida Gwaii, Queen Charlotte Islands, BC

8-ft Totem Pole: watchmen, eagle and frog crests, Province of British Columbia for National Tour Association, Baltimore, Maryland

1989-90 40-ft Memorial Frontal Pole, K’anadsnee Cultural Longhouse, Massett, Haida Gwaii, Queen Charlotte Islands, BC

1994 8 1/2-ft Totem Pole, Birmingham Museum, Birmingham, Alabama

1995 12-ft Totem Pole, City of Shanghai, Shanghai, China

1996 10 1/2-ft Totem Pole, Medical Arts Building, Burnaby, BC

12-ft Totem Pole, Eagle/Beaver, Gwong Chou, China

8 1/2-ft Totem Pole, Bear/Eagle, private Commission, Washington State