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Noah Davis
272 pages, Hardcover
Published March 11, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 1, 2025
"The imagination doesn't solve; it enables."
His name and his work are now solidly established as a significant figure in contemporary American art, and so it was with great excitement that I went to see, earlier this year at the Barbican in London (UK), the first ever European retrospective of Noah Davis' work. And I was certainly not disappointed with over 50 works on display covering the whole of his short, so sadly short, career. I was expecting very good art but I was quickly stunned beyond that expectation as I discovered an artist who not only painted very strong, intimate, heartfelt and beautiful pictures but who also did so much to bring access to world class Art, to the very depraved minorities population of Los Angeles. Even if it could mean having to create Koons or Duchamps imitations as no insurance could possibly cover bringing the real ones to Arlington Heights.
We are now left to guess how far such genius as his, who dedicated all his life to art, who, in his own words "would have rather failed at painting than be successful at anything else", and who was still painting only a few weeks before he passed, would have got to if he had been permitted to evolve beyond his untimely death at the age of 32 from a rare type of cancer.
Of course, his work will endure, and it is there for us to enjoy.
Noah Davis - 1975 (8) - 2013
The exhibition’s catalogue, which includes various texts from people who worked with him, lived with him, curated his work, throws more light on a life and a body of work which was “ambitious but also modest. Proud, but not pompous. Purposeful yet playful. And aware of the power of words.”
Noah Davis (1983 - 2015)
His name and his work are now solidly established as a significant figure in contemporary American art, and so it was with great excitement that I went to see, earlier this year at the Barbican in London (UK), the first ever European retrospective of Noah Davis' work. And I was certainly not disappointed with over 50 works on display covering the whole of his short, so sadly short, career. I was expecting very good art but I was quickly stunned beyond that expectation as I discovered an artist who not only painted very strong, intimate, heartfelt and beautiful pictures but who also did so much to bring access to world class Art, to the very depraved minorities population of Los Angeles. Even if it could mean having to create Koons or Duchamps imitations as no insurance could possibly cover bringing the real ones to Arlington Heights.
We are now left to guess how far such genius as his, who dedicated all his life to art, who, in his own words "would have rather failed at painting than be successful at anything else", and who was still painting only a few weeks before he passed, would have got to if he had been permitted to evolve beyond his untimely death at the age of 32 from a rare type of cancer.
Of course, his work will endure, and it is there for us to enjoy.
Noah Davis - 1975 (8) - 2013
The exhibition’s catalogue, which includes various texts from people who worked with him, lived with him, curated his work, throws more light on a life and a body of work which was “ambitious but also modest. Proud, but not pompous. Purposeful yet playful. And aware of the power of words.”
Noah Davis (1983 - 2015)
March 23, 2026
“The complex, layered nature of our individual interior lives deepens through our interactions with who and what we encounter and absorb. Davis’ understanding and deep belief in this form of synergy allowed his constructed spaces to help others, through art and community, to open outwards, to find the spaces within themselves that allow them to continue on. This might be one of the highest forms of activism.”
Deeply moved by this collection of essays about Noah Davis’ work and life.
Deeply moved by this collection of essays about Noah Davis’ work and life.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews