Painter, installation artist
NOAH DAVIS, 1983 - 2015
Noah Davis, a Los Angeles painter and installation artist known for tension-filled scenes of isolated figures and for establishing the Underground Museum, an important artist-run space in Arlington Heights, has died at his Los Angeles home. He was 32.
His death Saturday, confirmed by Museum of Contemporary Art spokeswoman Sarah Stifler, was caused by complications from a rare cancer.
Davis had become a significant art world presence during his short career. His work appeared in institutional collections, and the Underground Museum had recently established a unique curatorial partnership with MOCA.
He died the same day an installation of his work, titled “Imitation of Wealth,” opened at the museum.
“I’m so honored we got to do the work we got to do together for the past year,” MOCA chief curator Helen Molesworth said in an interview shortly before Davis’ death.
“Noah is an important artist because he occupies the term ‘artist’ in the largest possible way.”
Davis was born in Seattle on June 3, 1983, the son of a lawyer father and educator mother. Davis’ older brother, Kahlil Joseph, is a noted filmmaker and video artist.
Davis began to establish a reputation as a painter in his early 20s. After attending Cooper Union in New York, he moved to Los Angeles, where he became known for his figurative paintings: melancholic portrayals of blurred black figures against barren or shadowy landscapes — paintings that often teetered precariously into the unreal.
By 2007, he had caught the attention of Culver City gallery owner Bennett Roberts, who represented him for five years. During this time, his work was acquired by numerous institutions, including the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Nasher Museum in North Carolina. His art also landed in the influential Rubell Family Collection in Miami, where it was included in the traveling exhibition “30 Americans,” an assemblage of work by influential African American artists.
The show was visited by the Obamas when it was at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C.
In recent years, Davis explored areas beyond painting — establishing the Underground Museum in a series of interconnected storefronts in working-class Arlington Heights. There, he staged exhibitions that attracted the attention of fellow artists, critics and curators.
In 2013, he staged an exhibition in which he re-created important works of bluechip art by figures such as Jeff Koons — a way of exhibiting museum-quality art in a working-class neighborhood. That installation is now at MOCA.
The piece was a harbinger of work to come. In June, the Underground Museum launched the first of a series of exhibitions, curated by Davis, that drew on objects from MOCA’s permanent collection.
Molesworth called Davis’ death a loss for the city.
“He got Los Angeles,” she said. “He got that you could do impossible things here. That this was a brown city, a black city.”
Davis is survived by his wife, artist Karon Davis; his 5-year-old son Moses; his brother; and his mother, Faith Childs-Davis.