This major exhibition, accompanied by a rich, multidisciplinary programme of events, charts the breadth of Davis’s relentless creativity from 2007 to his untimely death in 2015. It offers a comprehensive overview of his practice in painting, curating and community-building as co-founder of the Underground Museum, Los Angeles.
Davis created a body of figurative paintings that explores the emotional, and fantastical, textures of everyday life. Based primarily in Los Angeles, he believed he had a “responsibility to represent the people around me” and drew on an expansive pool of references—anonymous vintage photography found in flea markets, personal archives, film and television, music, literature, art history and his imagination—to paint a cast of characters, some real, some fictional, that dive into swimming pools, sleep, dance and look at public art. Davis agilely moved between painting styles, often using unorthodox techniques and a diverse palette to create scenes that feel both realistic and dreamlike, joyful and melancholic.
Davis understood the power of art to uplift others and believed art was for everyone. In 2012, he and Karon Davis, his wife and fellow artist, co-founded the Underground Museum, a revered and much-loved institution in the historically Black and Latinx neighborhood of Arlington Heights, Los Angeles. They converted four storefronts into a cultural centre that was free and open to all, transforming the car park into a garden planted with purple flowers in homage to Prince. In his lifetime, Davis used the Underground Museum as a studio, a site for residencies and an exhibition space, convincing the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) to lend their collection in a three-year partnership starting in 2014. By the time he died in 2015, he had planned 18 exhibitions for the Underground Museum using MOCA’s collection, motivated by the desire to “change the way people view art, the way they buy art, the way they make art.”
Organised chronologically and featuring loans from both public and private international collections, the exhibition features groups of paintings made between 2007 and 2015 that chart his interest in politics and current affairs, everyday life, ancient Egypt, family history, the racism of the American media, art history and architecture. The paintings are positioned alongside Davis’s experimentations in sculpture, installation, works on paper and curation, giving special attention to the conceptual underpinnings of his practice, as well as his engagement with the complex histories of representation and image-making. The exhibition also includes a selection of Davis’s eclectic source material, on display for the first time.
This gallery show is accompanied by a cross-arts series of events at the Barbican, inspired by Davis’s spirit of creative togetherness and his vision for the Underground Museum. Activating multiple locations across the Centre, this multidisciplinary programme comprises a series of talks—including from American poet and playwright Claudia Rankine and writer and podcaster Helen Molesworth—as well as musical performances, workshops, exhibition tours, cinema screenings and wellness activities. The full programme is available here.
Shanay Jhaveri, Head of Visual Arts at the Barbican, said: “We are delighted to be bringing the work of Noah Davis to audiences here in the UK. A most original and uncanny painter to have emerged in recent years, Davis’s distinctive vision captures the nuances of life with poignancy and depth, bridging personal and collective narratives in ways that profoundly connect with our times. This exhibition is an opportunity not only to celebrate his extraordinary legacy but to inspire dialogues around representation, identity, and community.”
at Barbican Art Gallery, London
until May 11, 2025