Kenturah Davis

Kenturah Davis
Born
Altadena, California
Occupationssculptor, designer, performance art

Kenturah Davis (born 1980 in Altadena, California) is an American contemporary multidisciplinary artist and designer. She works in the mediums of sculpture, drafting, printmaking, painting, and performance art. Davis has lived between the cities of Los Angeles and New Haven in the United States, and Accra, Ghana.

Education

Davis earned her BA degree from Occidental College in 2002; and a MFA degree from Yale University School of Art.

Career

Davis' work explores the relationship between identity, language, and figurative mark-making. Davis works in a range of media from drawing to painting to sculpture to performance. Her work is in the collection of the Walker Art Center.

In 2020, Davis collaborated with the fashion label: Osei Duro. Davis was commissioned by Los Angeles Metro to create large-scale work that will be permanently installed in a site-specific location on the new K Line (Crenshaw/LAX) rail line.

In 2021, the Pérez Art Museum Miami acquired their work Black As the Most Exquisite Color (2019) as part of this institution's new acquisitions initiative. Davis's work was welcomed into PAMM's collection alongside artworks from Bisa Butler, Tania Bruguera, and Coco Fusco, among others.

In 2022, Ava DuVernay's portrait, by Davis, was revealed by the National Portrait Gallery.

Davis received the 2026 Creative Capital Award in Visual Arts to develop Rest Stops: Thriving in the Thresholds of Altadena, which integrates drawings, ceramic works, and objects from trees that were salvaged from the 2025 Eaton Fire as a reclamation of what was lost and an homage to the resilience of Altadena’s Black and Brown community.

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

  • 2013, "Sonder" at Papillion in Los Angeles
  • 2014, "Narratives and Meditations" at Papillion in Los Angeles
  • 2019, "Blur in the Interest of Precision" at Mathew Brown Gallery in Los Angeles
  • 2020, "Everything That Cannot be Known" at the SCAD Museum of Art in Georgia
  • 2021, "(A)Float, (A)Fall, (A)Dance, (A)Death" at the Jeffrey Deitch Projects in New York City
  • 2021, "apropos of air" at Matthew Brown Gallery in Los Angeles
  • 2023, "Dark Illumination" at Oxy Arts in Los Angeles, CA

References

  1. ↑ "Wildfires Leave Diverse Historic Altadena Ashes Rubble". NBC News. 14 January 2025. Retrieved 2025-01-14.
  2. 1 2 "Kenturah Davis". Walker Art Center. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  3. ↑ "Kenturah Davis". Los Angeles Times. 10 November 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2020 – via PressReader.com.
  4. ↑ "Kenturah Davis". Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art. 10 June 2018. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  5. ↑ Burris-Wells, Mae. "Kenturah Davis delivers Plonsker Family Lecture".
  6. ↑ Gilstrap, Peter. "Kenturah Davis '02". Oxy Stories, Oxy. Retrieved 2023-11-19.
  7. 1 2 "Kenturah Davis – NXTHVN". Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  8. 1 2 "Sonder - an exhibition by Kenturah Davis". PAPILLION. 2013. Archived from the original on 25 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  9. ↑ "Kenturah Davis: 'Everything That Cannot Be Known'". Visit Savannah. 2020-06-22. Archived from the original on 2020-06-25. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  10. ↑ "Kenturah Davis Collaboration - Cloth #1". Osei – Duro. Archived from the original on 25 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  11. ↑ Stromberg, Matt (10 October 2022). "LA's New Metro Line Opens With 14 Public Artworks". Hyperallergic. Archived from the original on 23 October 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  12. ↑ "Black As the Most Exquisite Color • Pérez Art Museum Miami". Pérez Art Museum Miami. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  13. ↑ Valentine, Victoria L. (2021-08-21). "New Acquisitions: Pérez Art Museum Miami Adds 13 Works to Collection, Diverse Slate of Artists Includes Kenturah Davis, Bisa Butler, Karon Davis, Coco Fusco, and Sonia Gomes". Culture Type. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  14. ↑ White, Abbey (1 November 2022). "How Kenturah Davis Crafted Ava DuVernay's Portrait for the 2022 Portrait of a Nation Awards". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  15. ↑ "National Portrait Gallery Announces "Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees," Exhibition of Newly Commissioned Portraits, To Open Nov. 10". Smithsonian Institution. 1 November 2022. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  16. ↑ Holliday, Kayla (1 November 2022). "Anthony Fauci, Clive Davis, Ava DuVernay, and More Take Their Place in the National Portrait Gallery". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  17. ↑ https://creative-capital.org/projects/the-fire-holds-memory-by-kenturah-davis-and-accordion-press/
  18. 1 2 "Kenturah Davis: Blur in the Interest of Precision at Matthew Brown Los Angeles". Curate LA. 2019. Archived from the original on 5 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  19. ↑ "Narratives and Meditations - PAPILLION". www.papillionart.com. Retrieved 2026-10-20.
  20. ↑ "Kenturah Davis @ Matthew Brown Los Angeles". The LA Bae. 1 March 2019. Archived from the original on 23 June 2020.
  21. ↑ "SCAD Museum of Art - Everything that Cannot be Known". Art Forum. 2020. Archived from the original on 20 June 2020. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  22. ↑ "Kenturah Davis: Portraits". Africanah. 20 February 2020. Archived from the original on 23 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  23. ↑ "Kenturah Davis: (a)Float, (a)Fall, (a)Dance, (a)Death". deitch.com. Retrieved 2026-10-20.
  24. ↑ "Kenturah Davis - apropos of air - Exhibitions - Matthew Brown". www.matthewbrowngallery.com. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
  25. ↑ "Kenturah Davis: Dark Illumination | OXY ARTS". oxyarts.oxy.edu. 2023-04-23. Retrieved 2026-10-21.