User:Kenturah Davis

Kenturah Davis is an artist working between Los Angeles, New Haven and Accra (Ghana). Davis' work oscillates between various facets of portraiture and design. Using text as a point of departure, she explores the fundamental role that language has in shaping how we understand ourselves and the world around us. This manifests in a variety of forms including drawings, sculpture and performances. The artist earned her B.A. from Occidental College, CA and MFA from Yale University School of Art in 2018. Her work has been presented in institutional exhibitions in Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe. Exhibitions include Linked in Tradition, Inspiring in Vision: A Selection of Works by African American Women Artists, Robert and Frances Museum of Art, San Bernardino, CA (2017); Black Joy, Yale University, New Haven, CT (2016); We Must Risk Delight, at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, Venice Biennale (2015); The Silence of Ordinary Things, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles (2015); i:23, The Yokohama Triennial, Yokohama, Japan (2014); An American Water Margin, Ucity Museum, Guangzhou, China (2014); Mass Attack at the Torrance Art Museum, CA (2013); Mis-Design, Ian Potter Museum, Melbourne, Australia (2011).

Solo exhibitions include Narratives and Meditations (2014) and sonder (2013), Papillion, Los Angeles. Public projects include Four Women, a commissioned mural by Alliance Francaise to commemorate International Women’s Day, in Accra, Ghana and Metamorphose, comprised of five portraits commissioned by architect, Elliott Barnes, featured in Barnes’™ Â installation at the  L’Exposition AD Interieurs, Paris, France.

Currently, the artist is a fellow at NXTHVN, founded by Titus Kaphar and Jonathan Brand and a DAMLI fellow at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Recent Exhibitions include, Plumb Line: Charles White and the Contemporary, curated by Essence Harden and Leigh Raiford at the California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA and a two-person exhibition with Desmond Lewis at Crosstown Arts, Memphis, TN in coordination with the traveling venue, Seed Space.

Notably, Davis was commissioned by the Los Angeles Metro Rail to create large-scale, site-specific work that will be permanently installed on the new Crenshaw / LAX rail line, opening in 2020.