Art News. Vasari Codex

museum exhibitions schedule Jan 27, 2026 visibility 18 link 5 artists, 1 gallery

Gone too soon: A posthumous retrospective of the late Noah Davis at the Philadelphia Art Museum

The Philadelphia Art Museum (PAM) has opened "Noah Davis," the first solo retrospective of the late Los Angeles–based painter, who died at age 32 from a rare cancer. Davis's career spanned only six years, beginning with his first solo show at Tilton Gallery in New York in 2009. The exhibition, which originated at the Barbican in London, is the fourth and final stop of an international tour and the only North American venue. It features Davis's large-scale, abstract figurative paintings of Black life, including works like "You Are..." (2012) and "Untitled" (2015), and highlights his use of chemical solvents to degrade paint surfaces. The show also explores his role as founder of the Underground Museum in Arlington Heights, Los Angeles, a community-focused space where he once displayed fakes as "Imitations of Wealth."

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Noah Davis, a Painter Gone Too Soon, Takes a Seat in Posterity

Noah Davis, a painter who died at age 32 in 2015, is the subject of a posthumous retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and a concurrent exhibition at the Underground Museum, the institution he co-founded with his wife, artist Karon Davis. The article traces his brief but influential career, highlighting his figurative paintings that blend everyday Black life with surrealist and spiritual undertones, and his role as a community builder in the Los Angeles art scene.