Karon Davis

Born in Reno, NV, 1977; Lives and works in Los Angeles

Artwork

Exhibitions

12.22.2023–11.18.2024
Curtain Call
The High Line, New York

Karon Davis

10.12–12.23.2023
Beauty Must Suffer
Salon 94 89th Street

Karon Davis

02.11–04.09.2023
Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection
The Hammer Museum at UCLA

Karon Davis

11.29–12.04.2021
Group Show
Art Basel

Art Basel Miami Beach 2021

Biography

Photo by Elon Schoenholz.

Karon Davis (b. 1977, Reno, Nevada) creates sculptures and multimedia installations that touch on issues of history, race, and violence in the United States, using materials as varied as plaster strips, chicken wire, glass, and readymade objects. Drawing on her background in theater and film, Davis creates haunting tableaux inhabited by protagonists both historical and imagined. The figures are created using the artist’s unique plaster method, amalgamations of life-size casts taken from friends and family as well as her own body. The material reflects her longtime interest in ancient Egyptian mummification practices, using wrapping to memorialize different bodies and their complex histories.

Davis’ work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions in recent years, including Karon Davis: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection at the Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles in 2023; and No Good Deed Goes Unpunished at Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles (CA) in 2023, which was first staged in New York in 2021.

The artist’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (CA); the Pérez Art Museum, Miami (FL); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA); the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (TX); the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (CA); the Rubell Museum, Miami (FL); and the Brooklyn Museum (NY), among others. In 2017 Davis was the recipient of The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant.

CV

Press

01.23.2024
Katy Hessel Interviews Karon Davis
Katy Hessel

The Great Women Artists Podcast

12.11.2023
‘Beauty must suffer’: the artist lifting the barre on ballet
Katy Hessel

The Guardian

11.22.2023
Artist Karon Davis’ New Exhibition Grapples With the Physicality and Grit of Ballet
Olivia Manno

Dance Magazine

11.17.2023
With Her Dad, Ben Vereen, by Her Side, Karon Davis Turns to Dance
Aruna D’Souza

The New York Times

10.16.2023
Artist Karon Davis Captures the Beauty, Pain, and Conformity of Ballet in an Ambitious New Exhibition
Sophie Lee

CULTURED

03.31.2021
After Reflected Fame, the Artist Karon Davis Steps Into Her Own Light
Robin Pogrebin

The New York Times