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. In 2012, the artist and her late husband, the painter Noah Davis (1983 — 2015), founded The Underground Museum in Arlington Heights, Los Angeles. The UM is an arts and culture center which brings art experiences traditionally reserved for major institutions to diverse audiences for free, with the belief that art is an essential part of a vibrant, just, and healthy society and that increasing access to art will inspire, educate, and transform lives. In addition to staging a world class program of exhibitions, featuring artists such as Arthur Jafa, Catherine Opie, Deana Lawson, Kara Walker, and Lorna Simpson, the UM also offers free yoga and meditation classes, as well as fresh food distribution.

Davis’s 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.