David Zwirner presents a selection of works by the late American artist Noah Davis (1983–2015), Born in Seattle, Washington, Davis studied painting at The Cooper Union School of Art in New York before moving to Los Angeles, where, in 2012, he founded the Underground Museum in the city’s Arlington Heights neighborhood with his wife and fellow artist, Karon Davis.
Davis’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, California (2008, 2010, and 2013); Tilton Gallery, New York (2009 and 2011); PAPILLION, Los Angeles (2014); and the Rebuild Foundation, Chicago (2016), among others.
Organized by Helen Molesworth, this latest show provides an overview of Davis’s brief but expansive career. Following the gallery’s highly acclaimed exhibition in New York in January 2020, this will be the first presentation of the artist’s work in the United Kingdom.
Davis’s work is notable for its seemingly uncomplicated relationship between, on the one hand, his lush, sensual, figurative paintings and, on the other hand, an ambitious social practice project called the Underground Museum, a Black-owned-and-operated art space dedicated to the exhibition of museum-quality art in a culturally underserved African American and Latinx neighborhood in Los Angeles. The exhibition will highlight both parts of Davis’s oeuvre through a group of his most enduring paintings as well as models, artworks, and archival materials that tell the story of the Underground Museum. The exhibition will also include a room modeled on the working offices at the Underground Museum, featuring more paintings by Davis as well as BLKNWS by Kahlil Joseph, Davis’s brother; and a sculpture by Karon Davis, the artist’s widow. The show runs from October 8th to November 17, 2021, at David Zwirner 24 Grafton Street, London.
For further information visit https://www.davidzwirner.com/
40 Acres and a Unicorn 2007
© The Estate of Noah Davis.
Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner
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