Karon Davis
{{Short description|American visual artist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Karon Davis
| other_names = Karon Om Vereen–Davis
| birth_name = Karon Vereen
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1977}}
| birth_place = Reno, Nevada, United States
| occupation = Sculptor, installation artist
| spouse = Noah Davis (m. 2008–2015; death)
| father = Ben Vereen
}}
Karon Davis (née Karon Vereen; born 1977), is an American visual artist, and a founder of the Underground Museum in Los Angeles. She is known as a sculptor and an installation artist touching on issues of race and identity in America through representations of the human body. Her artistic practice is influenced by dance, theater, and moving image.{{Cite web |last=Taft |first=Catherine |date=2017-01-01 |title=Karon Davis |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/karon-davis-2-226956/ |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}
Early life and education
Karon Vereen was born in 1977 in Reno, Nevada.{{Cite web |date=2023-02-11 |title=Karon Davis: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection |url=https://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2023/karon-davis-selections-hammer-contemporary-collection |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Hammer Museum |language=en}} Daughter of professional dancers Nancy Bruner and Broadway performer Ben Vereen, Davis grew up influenced by the performing arts. Bruner retired from her ballet career to raise Karon and her three siblings.{{Cite web |title=Artist Karon Davis Captures the Beauty, Pain, and Conformity of Ballet in an Ambitious New Exhibition |url=https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2023/10/16/artist-karon-davis-salon-94-ballet |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=www.culturedmag.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Fontaine |first=Pearl |date=2023-11-28 |title=Karon Davis Sculpts Beauty and Suffering of Ballet at Salon 94 |url=https://whitewall.art/art/karon-davis-sculpts-beauty-and-suffering-of-ballet-at-salon-94/ |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Whitewall |language=en-US}} Her father is noted American actor, dancer, and singer, Ben Vereen.{{Cite news |last=D’Souza |first=Aruna |date=November 17, 2023 |title=With Her Dad, Ben Vereen, by Her Side, Karon Davis Turns to Dance |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/arts/design/salon-94-performa-karon-davis.html |work=The New York Times}}
Davis attended the theater department at Spelman College and took classes at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company before studying and graduating in film (2001) at University of Southern California's Cinematic Arts department.{{Cite web |title=Social Studies |url=https://sbmag.com/weliveinparadise/social-studies |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Santa Barbara Magazine |language=en-US}}
Career
In 2016, Karon Davis presented the solo show "Karon Davis: Pain Management" at Wilding Cran Gallery, Los Angeles. The exhibition featured her signature plaster sculpture bodies, of adults and children, that physically take up space as a large-scale installation. The show commented on emotional experiences of loss and endured agony.{{Cite web |last=Cachia |first=Amanda |date=2016-10-05 |title=Karon Davis |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/karon-davis-224835/ |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}} In 2017, Davis was the recipient of The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant.{{Cite web |date=February 15, 2018 |title=TIFFANY FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS OF 2017 BIENNIAL GRANTS |url=https://www.artforum.com/news/tiffany-foundation-announces-recipients-of-2017-biennial-grants-237949/ |access-date=January 19, 2024 |website=Artforum Magazine}}
Davis's Mary (2016) from the Pain Management series, was presented at Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow 2020-21, the contemporary arts triennial in New Orleans, Louisiana.{{Cite web |title=Karon Davis |url=https://www.prospect5.org/artists/karon-davis |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=P.5 Yesterday We Said Tomorrow |language=en-US}}
In 2021, Davis revealed new installations memorializing Bobby Seale and the Black Panther Party in the solo show "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" at Jeffrey Deitch gallery in New York. One of the installations consists of sandbags leaning against a wall in which a well circulated journalistic photograph of Bobby Seale, the cofounder and Panther leader. The image was taken while Seale was waiting trial during the Chicago Seven Trial event, in 1969. For the sculpture Bobby Seale and The People's Free Food Program (2020–21), a cast of Seale is surrounded by fifty bags of golden food placed on the floor. This installation was later acquired by the Pérez Art Museum Miami.{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Melissa |date=2021-03-15 |title=How Artist Karon Davis's Tour-de-Force Portrayal of Black Panther Leader Bobby Seale Reveals a Cruel Blind Spot of American History |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/karon-davis-interview-1950278 |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}}
In April 2023, the Hammer Museum exhibited Karon Davis: Selection from the Hammer Contemporary Collection, the collection presentation was organized by the Hammer former-chief curator Connie Butler. In November of same year, she unfolded a High Line Park commission titled Curtain Call, which runs through 2024.{{Cite web |title=Curtain Call |url=https://www.thehighline.org/art/projects/karon-davis/ |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=The High Line |language=en-US}} The solo exhibition Beauty Must Suffer was on view at New York's Salon 94 gallery through December 2023, and it showcased her plaster-cast sculptures of ballerinas.{{Cite web |last=Manno |first=Olivia |date=2023-11-22 |title=Artist Karon Davis' New Exhibition Grapples With the Physicality and Grit of Ballet |url=https://www.dancemagazine.com/artist-karon-davis-new-exhibition-grapples-with-the-physicality-and-grit-of-ballet/ |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Dance Magazine |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=Hessel |first=Katy |date=2023-12-11 |title='Beauty must suffer': the artist lifting the barre on ballet |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/dec/11/art-black-representation-in-ballet-karon-davis |access-date=2024-01-19 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}
Underground Museum
In 2012, Karon Davis and Noah Davis co-founded the Underground Museum in Arlington Heights, a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California. The museum was a cultural hub for Black art; artists such as Henry Taylor, Lorna Simpson, Arthur Jafa, and Deana Lawson presented their work there, while musicians John Legend and Solange Knowles launched albums there.{{Cite news |last=Pogrebin |first=Robin |date=March 31, 2021 |title=After Reflected Fame, the Artist Karon Davis Steps Into Her Own Light |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/arts/design/karon-davis-underground-museum-deitch.html |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |date=2017-11-08 |title=How an L.A. Storefront Became a Modern-Day Salon For Beyoncé and Barry Jenkins |url=https://www.wmagazine.com/story/underground-museum-los-angeles-kahlil-joseph-noah-davis |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=W Magazine |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2018-04-19 |title=Karon Davis Is Creating an Underground Art Oasis in the Heart of L.A. |url=https://www.bonappetit.com/story/karon-davis |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Bon Appétit |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Waddoups |first=Ryan |date=2021-04-07 |title=How Karon Davis Creates Unseen Images of Black Americans |url=https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/karon-davis-jeffrey-deitch-exhibition/ |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=SURFACE |language=en-US}}
Karon Davis presented her first institutional show "Sculptures & Photographs" for the museum inauguration. In 2015, visual artist Noah Davis passed away after battling against a rare type of cancer. He was 32 years old.{{Cite web |date=2016-09-30 |title=Karon Davis' 'Pain Management' plumbs loss and love in a tribute to her late husband, Noah Davis |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-ca-cm-karon-davis-pain-management-20160923-snap-story.html |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}} After ten years of operations, the Underground Museum closed in March 2022.{{Cite news |last=Small |first=Zachary |date=March 19, 2022 |title=Underground Museum in Los Angeles Has Closed |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/19/arts/design/underground-museum-los-angeles.html |work=The New York Times}}
Artworks in collections
- Beauty Must Suffer, 2023.
- Beth and Solomon, 2018. Rubell Museum, Miami, Florida, and Washington D.C., U.S.
- Bobby Seale and The People’s Free Food Program, 2020–2021. Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, Florida, U.S.{{Cite web |title=Bobby Seale and The People's Free Food Program |url=https://www.pamm.org/en/artwork/2021.063a-n |access-date=2023-08-16 |website=Pérez Art Museum Miami |language=en-US}}
- Cat's Cradle, 2019. Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- Echo & Narcissus: The Embrace, 2023.
- Family, 2019. Rubell Museum, Miami, Florida, and Washington D.C., U.S.{{Cite web |title=Karon Davis |url=https://rubellmuseum.org/2019-karon-davis |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Rubell Museum}}
- Gabriel, 2016. Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, U.S.{{Cite web |title=Karon Davis |url=https://www.louiscomforttiffanyfoundation.org/awards/2017/karon-davis |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation |language=en-US}}
- Nicotine, 2016. Brooklyn Museum, New York, U.S.{{Cite web |title=Brooklyn Museum |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/224266 |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=www.brooklynmuseum.org}}
- Noah and his Ark, 2017. Private collection, California, U.S.
- Overture, 2023.
- Oya, 2016. Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, U.S.
- Principal Lewis, 2019. Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- Stairway to Heaven, 2019. Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, California, U.S.