A painted scene depicts a blue and red pickup truck with an American flag hood boasting oversized wheels, stuck in muddy water with its front end tilted downward. Spectators gather in the background near cemetery headstones and bare trees under a cloudy sky, watching the vehicle strain against the mud and its own weight.

Baby We Were Born To Run

Davin Watne

9/11/2026 – 10/17/2026

In this new exhibition, Baby We Were Born To Run, Davin Watne presents a body of paintings and prints exploring metaphor and allegory within the American experience. These works build humorous narratives that challenge prevailing media depictions of nationalism, toxic masculinity, and culture war politics. By intersecting these themes with concepts of folk physics, Watne exposes the fragile underbelly of male vulnerability.

Watne utilizes "folk physics" as a conceptual lens to examine the unseen forces structuring American life. Just as this phenomenon relies on an intuitive, unscientific understanding of cause and effect, social constructs like nationalism and masculinity are often treated as immutable laws of nature rather than fragile, human-made systems. By rendering scenes of monster trucks violently confronting their mechanical limits and gravitational strain, Watne mirrors the psychological weight and volatile friction inherent in contemporary culture wars.

 

Exhibition Images ()

  • Gallery installation view showing four large photographic prints of monster trucks in desert landscapes mounted on the left wall, and a grid of approximately twenty smaller colorful prints featuring monster trucks with overlaid text phrases including "God Bless This Mess," "Freedom to Love," and "Jesus Take the Wheel" mounted on the right wall; concrete floor visible in foreground.
  • A gallery corner displays a large grid of colorful prints featuring monster trucks in various compositions on the left wall, interspersed with bright text passages in yellow, green, and pink including phrases like "God Bless This Mess" and "Freedom to Love." The right wall shows two framed prints with similar monster truck imagery and warm orange-red tones. The concrete floor is marked with circular patterns.
  • Gallery installation view featuring four photographs of monster trucks in desert landscapes mounted on the left and right walls, and a large grid of colorful pop art-style prints depicting monster trucks with neon text phrases including "LONELY," "GOD BLESS THIS MESS," "FREEDOM TO LOVE," and "JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL" mounted on the back wall.
A painted scene depicts a blue and red pickup truck with an American flag hood boasting oversized wheels, stuck in muddy water with its front end tilted downward. Spectators gather in the background near cemetery headstones and bare trees under a cloudy sky, watching the vehicle strain against the mud and its own weight.

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