With tenderness, intimacy, and bracing inventiveness, Noah Davis’s canvases channel scenes of contemporary life, usually Black life, in the United States. “When you look at Noah’s paintings, I feel like I understand that I am in the hands of someone who is a master at composition,” Helen Molesworth, who co-curated this exhibition with Justen Leroy, told Surface during the late artist’s landmark show at David Zwirner in 2020. “Xeroxes, books open, things like that—almost like this André Malraux moment of the ‘Museum Without Walls.’” 

Now, his paintings are going on view for the first time at the Underground Museum, the beloved Los Angeles institution and community incubator he founded with his wife, Karon, a decade ago, to celebrate its long-awaited reopening after two years. It follows the launch of the Noah Davis Prize, an award launched in partnership with the Chanel Culture Fund that recognizes curators following in his footsteps of transforming the museum field by creating space for others and bringing culture to new audiences. In the spring, the museum will also present a curatorial symposium featuring the three Noah Davis Prize recipients. 

Pictured: “The Last Barbeque” (2008) by Noah Davis