Critical acclaim is great, but at some point, you want your art to be admired by people on your own level -- sure, the Emmys, Oscars, and Grammys were great for Jeff Foxworthy, but eventually he just needed to touch those 5th graders. Now making art his friends can actually understand, sort of: Jared Davis.

Formerly a contemplative abstract expressionist, Davis started cranking out playfully lowbrow acrylics -- generally centered on daredevil monkeys, tiki culture, and sci-fi -- after realizing that he wanted to paint for his friends and not "some Swedish guy in a black-turtle neck", prompting a mid-career style shift, and a lifetime ban from Ikea. For no particular reason, many recent works focus on primate daredevil "Fearless" and his goading counterpart "Floyd", including the latter shooting the former out of a circus cannon, a rollerskating Fearless strapped to a rocket, Jackass-style, as well as about to engage a naked woman in a boxing ring in "Sweet Science", although there's no homage to the sweetest science, i.e., the chemical engineering responsible for Fun Dip. Similarly unexplainable randomness includes sci-fi inspired joints like his newest, "Genius and a Dandy", with a well-dressed computer-monitor robot taking tea with an 8-track player, and tiki-tributes like a dancing Polynesian statue, and a depiction of a stern-faced, blue-glowing drink mug painted on black velvet, guaranteed to give you that little boy smile aesthetically approving grin.

Because much like a sci-fi primate, his creativity won't be bound, Jared's also got a slew of uncategorizable pieces, with the standout being a massive oil of a pouncing cat titled "White Tiger Attacking Roy", proving that he may be crazy, but not like a Fox.

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Everything's either for sale, or commissionanble for a replica -- and it's all at ArtByJared.com