712 N La Brea Ave
June 29 – August 5, 2023
Matthew Brown presents a group show of works on paper.
Featured Artists:
Alia Ahmad
Adam Alessi
Karla Black
Sedrick Chisom
Matt Connors
Kenturah Davis
Sharif Farrag
Denzil Forrester
Sasha Gordon
Justin John Greene
Dan Herschlein
Naotaka Hiro
Ann Greene Kelly
Molly Rose Lieberman
Calvin Marcus
Soshiro Matsubara
Kent O’Connor
Lorna Robertson
Antonia Showering
TARWUK
Hayley Tompkins
Vincent Valdez
Blair Whiteford
Presenting new work in ceramic, with florals by Maurice Harris of Bloom and Plume.
7000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles
A new generation of artists is reinventing the tradition of ceramic sculpture through its engagement with popular culture. A medium long associated with craft, ceramics have undergone a remarkable transformation evolving into an exciting platform for both formal and conceptual innovation. Curated by Alia Dahl, Clay Pop Los Angeles expands on the 2021 New York exhibition and the book of the same title published by Rizzoli this spring to present a group exhibition of thirty-two artists, most of whom work on the West Coast.
“Artists are taking a traditional medium and turning it on its head,” says the exhibition curator Alia Dahl. Paralleling current concerns in painting, many of the artists featured in Clay Pop Los Angeles are exploring issues of gender, race and identity, using clay in new ways to engage with social issues. Clay is pushed beyond the confines of craft and design through artists using the medium to create a personal narrative.
Ceramic sculpture has a long tradition on the West Coast, especially in Northern and Southern California. While an earlier generation of ceramic artists is referenced, the range of influences encompasses everyday commercial imagery, counterculture, and artistic sources from African American assemblage to Walt Disney. Much of the new work is exuberant and figurative, expanding on how the medium of clay has been traditionally used. Glazes are especially colorful. Funk art from 1970s Northern California is a source, as is Claes Oldenburg’s store. Some of the artists also draw on artistic influences from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
The exhibition unveils a new dimension to the genre, highlighting its ability to reflect and comment on contemporary culture. One of the most interesting qualities of this new generation of ceramists is the deep sense of community. Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland are home to numerous new voices experimenting with clay, serving as the perfect platforms to show the multicultural heritage of the ceramics community.
The exhibition design by Charlap Hyman & Herrero continues the successful collaboration initiated in New York.
Copies of the book Clay Pop will be available at des pair bookstore located in the gallery at 7000 Santa Monica Blvd. The publication, designed by POLYMODE, features thirty-eight artist portfolios and is accompanied by an essay by Michael Lobel, a scholar of Pop Art and professor at City University of New York.
The artists participating in Clay Pop Los Angeles are:
Diana Yesenia Alvarado
Alex Anderson
Alex Becerra
Genesis Belanger
Seth Bogart
Kenturah Davis
Woody De Othello
Sharif Farrag
Ryan Flores
Joel Gaitan
Melvino Garretti
Lizette Hernandez
Stephanie Temma Hier
Sydnie Jimenez
Grant Levy-Lucero
Candice Lin
Jasmine Little
Amelia Lockwood
Jiha Moon
Ruby Neri
Maija Peeples-Bright
Brian Rochefort
Jennifer Rochlin
Brie Ruais
Stephanie H. Shih
Alake Shilling
Peter Shire
Christopher Suarez
Magdalena Suarez Frimkess
Amia Yokoyama
Maryam Yousif
Bari Ziperstein
Installation photo by Joshua White.
February 9th - April 29th 2023
OXY ARTS, 4757 York Blvd, Los Angeles 90042
Opens February 9th, 6pm
For the culmination of her residency at OXY ARTS, and in her first solo institutional exhibition in Los Angeles, Kenturah Davis presents a body of work that illuminates the significance of shadows in our sensory experience.
Drawing inspiration from Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s classic text, In Praise of Shadows, Davis explores the premise that shadows and darkness do not just produce conditions that conceal, but that they can also reveal and illuminate. Using hybrid forms of drawing, photography and printmaking, Davis experiments with various modalities that interrogate the contingent relationship between shadow and light.
Davis’ practice—at the intersection of text, image, and object—considers how we embody and disseminate meaning. Her work extends to questions and explorations that help unpack social and cultural conventions and hierarchies, and consider ideas rooted in philosophy, physics, literature and anthropology.
Davis’ drawing practice is born from an interest in the earliest forms of writing and mark-making. Ancient mechanisms of inscription by early civilizations, whether on monumental temple walls or clay tiles, set a precedent for how we visualize information. Her experiments with the physicality of language guide her practice. By integrating text and portraiture, Davis blurs the distinction between writing and drawing and animates the dynamic process in which language frames how we understand ourselves and the world around us.
This exhibition and related programming are made possible by generous support from the Kathryn Caine Wanlass Charitable Foundation.
Related Programming:
Opening Reception - Kenturah Davis: Dark Illumination
February 9, 2023 | 6:00PM - 8:00PM
Celebrate the opening of Kenturah Davis: Dark Illumination with drinks, food, music and more.
Kenturah Davis in Conversation with Ian F. Blair
February 21, 2023 | 6:00PM
Kenturah Davis is joined by Ian F. Blair, editor-in-chief of the L.A. Times Image magazine.
Jonathan Richards and Ensemble in Concert
March 23, 2023 | 6:00PM
An intimate evening of jazz reflecting on Kenturah Davis: Dark Illumination.
Screening of Maborosi (Phantom Light) (1995)
April 6, 2023 | 6:00PM
The classic debut feature film by Hirokazu Kore-eda. A somber, revelatory story on grief and life after death.
Incense Presentation with Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony
April 27, 2023 | 6:00PM
Olfactory artist Persephenie and Nesanet Teshager Abegaze share knowledge, scents and ceremony.
Opens Friday, January 27, 2023, 11:00AM 5:00PM
Tri-Star Arts, 4450 Candora Ave, Knoxville TN 37920
Tri-Star Arts is pleased to announce the artist roster, curators, and highlight weekend dates for the inaugural Tennessee Triennial for Contemporary Art: RE-PAIR, opening January 27th and on view through May 7th.
Tri-Star Arts is located at the historic Candoro Marble Building, 4450 Candora Avenue Knoxville, TN, 37920. Come by to see their RE-PAIR themed show feat. Kenturah Davis (Los Angeles, CA) and Rubens Ghenov (Knoxville, TN) indoors and an outdoor sculpture by Hank Willis Thomas (New York, NY).
The Tennessee Triennial has chosen a statewide model that is set apart and unprecedented. Curators from institutions in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga have been invited to respond to the theme of RE-PAIR authored by consulting curator Dr. Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons. This horizontal approach allows for each curator to be active in selecting participating artists. The Tennessee Triennial is a collective endeavor that emphasizes Tennessee’s contemporary art community while including national and international perspectives.
Ava DuVernay pictured in front of her portrait at the 2022 Portrait of a Nation Gala
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery presented “Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees” Nov. 10, featuring the seven recipients of the museum’s 2022 Portrait of a Nation Awards. Included in the exhibition are newly acquired portraits of honorees José Andrés, Clive Davis, Ava DuVernay, Marian Wright Edelman, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Serena Williams and Venus Williams. The exhibition premieres six newly commissioned works and one never-before-shown photograph, each by a highly acclaimed contemporary artist. “Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees” will be on view on the museum’s first floor through Oct. 22, 2023. Admission is free. “Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees” is generously supported by NIKE Inc.
“Since 2001, the museum has collected portraits of living sitters and continues to expand its work with contemporary artists,” said Rhea L. Combs, director of curatorial affairs. “We are incredibly fortunate that these artists have agreed to work with the museum to contribute to the visual history of our nation while celebrating this year’s Portrait of a Nation honorees.”
… A new work on paper by the California-based artist Kenturah Davis (b. 1980) features an intricate depiction of filmmaker DuVernay, whose interest in moving images and writing is highlighted through the artist’s stamping technique.
The newly acquired works contribute to the National Portrait Gallery’s collection of more than 23,000 objects and its history of collaborating with contemporary artists. The “Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees” exhibition is curated by Combs in collaboration with Taína Caragol, curator of painting, sculpture and Latinx art and history, and Leslie Ureña, curator of photographs.
Established in 2015, the Portrait of a Nation Awards honor extraordinary individuals who have made transformative contributions to the United States and its people across all fields of endeavor. The 2022 honorees were presented with their awards at the ticketed Portrait of a Nation Gala Nov. 12.
Matthew Brown is pleased to present a solo booth of new works by Kenturah Davis for Frieze London 2022.
Booth H10
Regent's Park
October 12–16, 2022
Preview
Wednesday, October 12: 11am–7pm
Thursday, October 13: 11am–7pm
Public Hours
Friday, October 14: 11am–7pm
Saturday, October 15: 11am–7pm
Sunday, October 16: 11am–6pm
Install View
planar vessel I has been acquired by MOCA and is on view in Old and New Dreams: Recent Acquisitions in a Collection at MOCA Grand through September 11.
Kenturah Davis, planar vessel I, 2021 fugitive ink photogram, hand debosssed text, carbon pencil rubbing on Igarashi kozo paper, artist frame, each (of 5 panels): 59 x 39.25 inches.
From @moca on instagram:
Over the past decade, Los Angeles artist Kenturah Davis has garnered increasing attention for works that explore a hybrid space where language and the figure intersect. Incorporating aspects of drawing, photography, printing, and writing - often in an overlay of processes - her work is as much involved with material craft, including traditional paper-making and weaving, as it is with philosophical meditations on identity and perception.
planar vessel I has a two-dimensional surface that seems to open up and contain a metaphorical volume as one looks into it. The primary motif consists of a pencil-rubbed image of a young Black woman, seen in three different views, fluttering or dancing across the work’s five sheets of paper, which have been mounted side-by-side. The paper has been treated with photosensitive inks and left outside to accumulate ghostly traces of time and weather - stains of pink, pale yellow, and lavender. An overlay of barely-visible cursive handwriting has been dry-pressed across the surface of the entire work, making its rumination on physics and daily experience legible. The overall work conveys a hazy portrayal of a person appearing to flow through time, words, and light. planar vessel I has the musical qualities of a free-jazz improvisation in visual form.
Old and New Dreams: Recent Acquisitions in a Collection highlights acquisitions made over the past two years, situating them in relation to hallmark historical examples from MOCA’s renowned collection. Recently added works by Camille Henrot, Ian Cheng, Essie Bendolph Pettway, and Trulee Hall, among many others, share space with canonical works across four distinct galleries, each oriented towards themes that have been present in MOCA’s Collection from its earliest days. These include figuration, as artist’s have pursued it in various media; representations of technological sentience; the intersection of geometric modernism and self-taught or vernacular art; and occultism in California art. Neither a full picture of MOCA’s recent collecting, nor a survey of its collection as a whole, the groupings are meant as case-studies from a history caught mid-stream.
Old and New Dreams: Recent Acquisitions in a Collection is organized by Bennett Simpson, Senior Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Exhibitions at MOCA are supported by the MOCA Fund for Exhibitions with generous funding provided by Earl and Shirley Greif Foundation and Nathalie Marciano and Julie Miyoshi.
Kenturah Davis, planar vessel X, 2022.
From Near and Far: Collage and Figuration in the Contemporary Age
Curated by Katy Hessel and Deborah Roberts
Stephen Friedman Gallery
9 June – 23 July 2022
Artists:
Sarah Ball, Jordan Casteel, Kenturah Davis, M. Florine Démosthène, Genevieve Gaignard, Lubaina Himid, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Chantal Joffe, Aubrey Levinthal, Deborah Roberts, Martha Rosler, Anne Rothenstein, Betye Saar, Amy Sherald, Mickalene Thomas and Caroline Walker.
Gallery hours: Tuesday–Friday, 10am–6pm Saturday 11am–5pm
11 & 30 Old Burlington Street, Mayfair, London
Stephen Friedman Gallery presents ‘From Near and Far’, an exhibition exploring the notion of collage. Bringing together 16 contemporary female artists, the exhibition focuses on collage as a concept and an art form; from the traditional method of splicing together imagery to amalgamating figures, forms, gestures and viewpoints. The artists are united by a shared interest in figuration.
Jurying The 22nd National Print Exhibition
October 15—November 12, 2022
Will take place at Mixografia
1419 E Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90011
Honorees include Betye and Alison Saar and the theme will be Excellence.
Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles
The Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles (KCCLA), in partnership with Black Artists in Los Angeles (BAILA), and the Korean Artists Association of Southern California (KAASC),
April 22 - May 20, 2022
Moses X. Ball / April Banks / Chelle Barbour / Sharon Barnes / Lili Bernard / Mark Broyard / Steven J. Brooks / Yrneh Gabon / Lavialle Campbell / Jane Chang / Jason Sahan Chang / Hyunsook Cho / Min Cho / Yun J. Choi / Kenturah Davis / Adrienne DeVine / Ingrid Elburg / Isaiah Ferguson / Mark Steven Greenfield / Okka Han / Zeal Harris / Han Na Hong (H.RED) / Marlon Ivory / David B. Jang / Miyoung Jeon / Eunsil Jeoung / In-ok Jeong / Buena Johnson / Sunhee Joo / Jessi Jumanji / Jongmoo Jun / Jinsil Kim / Somoon Kim / Sungil Kim /Yoonchung Park Kim / Yong Sik Kim / Chungmee Lee / Nakyung Lee / Robert Lee / Sam Sanghoon Lee / Talita Long / Michael Massenburg / Rosalind McGary / Rosalyn Myles / Dominique Moody / Kyoung Namkung / Ji Oh / Michelle Oh / Hairan Paik / Heysook Park / Swan Park / Duane Paul / Amber Perry / Alison Saar / Toni Scott / Esther Shim / Lisa Diane Wedgeworth / Wendell Wiggins / Stanley C. Wilson / Vincent Minsook Yang
This is an exhibition commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the uprising in Los Angeles in 1992. The exhibition will be in the spirit of the Collaborations exhibition organized by Roland Charles, founding director of the Black Gallery in 1996, and will feature the work of fifteen African American artist, as well as fifteen Korean American artists.
