Noah Davis “Black Boy Scout”

David Zwirner 19th Street

[Image: Noah Davis "Untitled" (2015) © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis]

This event has ended.

David Zwirner presents work by American artist Noah Davis (1983–2015), organized by Helen Molesworth. On view at the gallery’s 533 West 19th Street location in New York, the exhibition will provide an overview of Davis’s brief but expansive career.

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 works on view will highlight both parts of Davis’s oeuvre, featuring more than twenty of his most enduring paintings, as well as models, artworks, and archival materials that tell the story of the Underground Museum. Also included in this section will be the ongoing multimedia installation BLKNEWS by Davis’s brother Khalil Joseph; a sculpture by Karon Davis, the artist’s widow; and furniture made by Shelby George.

A select portion of the exhibition will travel to the Underground Museum, where it will be on view beginning in March 2020. On the occasion of the exhibition, a new monograph, featuring an introduction by Molesworth and oral history interviews that she conducted with Davis’s friends, family, and colleagues, is forthcoming from David Zwirner Books and The Underground Museum.