africanah.org

Arena for Contemporary African, African-American and Caribbean Art

In Collection: Noah Davis

NoahDavisTheGardener2009

 

In Collection Studio Museum Harlem: The Gardener (2009).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About:

NoahDavisTheMissingLink2013The Missing Link, 2013.

Creating psychological figurative paintings based on vintage photographs, art historical references, and his vivid imagination, Noah Davis explores the sadness and uncertainty of everyday life and African American history. Recalling work by Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, and Neo Rauch, Davis’s paintings are nostalgic and sentimental yet, at the same time, grotesque and disturbing. They combine casual, gestural brushwork with surrealist or uncanny imagery, such as a masked girl sitting on a bed, a child being spanked, or two hunters carving up an elephant. In 2010 Davis created a series of large-scale paintings based on Richard Brautigan’s 1968 novella, In Watermelon Sugar, about a post-apocalyptic commune. “Painting does something to your soul that nothing else can,” Davis explains. “It’s visceral and immediate and is always readdressed in new ways that keep it relevant.”

NoahDavisFlowersforDuBois2012Flowers for Dubois, 2012.

Noah Davis (Seattle 1983) creates a uniquely personal narrative in his psychologically charged paintings by sourcing imagery from found photographs, art history and autobiographical events. His works may reference racial, social or political issues, but always obliquely, depicting how these issues come to bear on our daily activities and inner lives.

NoahDavis_BasicTraining2Basic training II, 2012.

 

NoahDavisTheMissingLinkIII2013The Missing Link III, 2013.