Image courtesy of Alonzo Davis Studio

Alonzo Davis

February 2, 1942, Tuskegee, AL - January 27, 2025, Hyattsville, MD

It is with deep sadness that parrasch heijnen announces the passing of our dear friend, legendary artist, and gallerist Alonzo Davis on the morning of January 27, 2025. He was 82 years old. Born in Tuskegee, AL in 1942, Davis’ six-decade-long career has explored a wide range of media and methods, from mural to print, painting, sculpture, performance, and installation.

Using self-referential iconography, Davis often employed arrows, the direction indicating a path or trajectory, reflecting a philosophical interest in direction, be it political and societal, personal, or cosmic. A spiritual core resides at the heart of the artist’s oeuvre, and social justice is ever a part of his creative language and expression. Davis’ works are a reclamation of identity, using Blackness, Egyptian imagery, African imagery, and Indigenous motifs. Textiles and found ephemera embrace a utilitarian approach to material, highlighting Black history within the United States. Sewn together and bound in multiple facets, Davis projected a winding narrative of identity and meaning. As his work suggests, it was and continued to be a subversive act to believe in oneself. 

As co-founder of the seminal Brockman Gallery in Los Angeles, the first major Black-owned contemporary art gallery in the United States (1967 - 1990), Davis, along with his brother Dale Brockman Davis, sought to champion Black artists in a time when white, male art was prevalent. The Davis brothers focused their efforts on promoting overlooked and underrepresented Black and minority artists by providing a platform for critical and commercial exposure, encouraging talent, and providing visibility. Brockman Gallery gave first or early shows to such now-influential luminaries as David Hammons, Suzanne Jackson, Kerry James Marshall, Senga Nengudi, John Outterbridge, Noah Purifoy, and Carrie Mae Weems, among many others.

Named after the Davis brothers’ maternal grandmother, Brockman Gallery was located in a storefront in Leimert Park, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles long regarded as a cultural hub for African Americans in Los Angeles. The Davises allowed artists to focus on experimentation, and Brockman grew to include studio and living spaces, as well as a nonprofit branch. Their program created a nurturing environment to encourage talent and provide visibility within all communities.

During the summer of 1966, at the urging of Alonzo’s mentor, artist Charles White, the Davis brothers traversed the continental United States in their green Volkswagen Beetle. The two visited artist studios in historically Black communities throughout the country, meeting artists including Romare Bearden, John Biggers, and Jacob Lawrence, in an effort to rewrite the overwhelmingly western and white art history education they had received at university, Civil rights protests were forming across the nation, and the Davis brothers took an active role, participating in the James Meredith March -- the “March Against Fear” -- a 21-day solitary march down U.S. Highway 51 from the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, TN, to the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson.

The journey had an indelible impact on Davis, exposing him to myriad visual traditions practiced by Black and Indigenous communities. His realization, as quoted on the Hammer Museum website, that “there was room for me, that there was an opportunity for a person of color to be an artist and to make a statement,” fueled both his mission and his passion.

Davis’ experiences with and promotion of Black artists as well as the cultural iconography he collected on trips all over the world are often referenced in his work. Davis wove this dialogue of personal and communal narrative into his paintings, drawing from cultural histories encountered throughout his travels. Through an accumulative process, Davis situated himself within the visual and lineal knowledge embedded into the fabric of his work.

An advocate for public art, Davis first consulted Robert Fitzpatrick, director of the Olympics Arts Festival, to commission a series of public murals to celebrate the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. This endeavor resulted in works by ten artists, including Judy Baca, Frank Romero, and Richard Wyatt Jr. Davis’ own contribution was the iconic Eye on ‘84, located on the 110 South Freeway at 3rd Street, which incorporated the Olympic Rings into compositions of hearts, eyes, and arrows.

Alonzo Davis has participated in a number of exhibitions at parrasch heijnen  including his 2022-2023 solo show The Blanket Series, Davis’ first show in Los Angeles since 1984, as well as Alonzo Davis: Select Works, 1973-1979, Frieze Masters, London, UK (2023). Together with Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, parrasch heijnen co-presented retrospectives Brockman Days: 1967-1990 at Art Basel Miami Beach (2023), and Brockman Days (Part II): A Tribute to Brockman Gallery, Los Angeles 1967-1990, at Felix Art Fair, Los Angeles (2024). 

Solo exhibitions of Brockman Gallery artists presented by parrasch heijnen include: La Monte Westmoreland: A Survey, 1974 - 2024 (upcoming: February 8 - March 15, 2025); Teresa Tolliver: Sitting on the Edge of Reality (2024) Linda Vallejo: Select Works 1969 - 2024 (2024); and Mildred Howard: A Survey: 1978 - 2020 (2020).

It has been a tremendous honor to work with such a visionary, and true friend.

Alonzo Davis is represented by parrasch heijnen, Los Angeles.

Alonzo Davis received a BA from Pepperdine University, Los Angeles, CA (1964), a BFA (1971) and MFA (1973) from Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA. Select solo exhibitions include Just Above Midtown Gallery, New York (1975); Modern Nordisk Konst, Göteborg, Sweden (1979); Watts Tower Arts Center, Los Angeles, CA (1981); and parrasch heijnen, Los Angeles (2022-2023).

Davis was featured in the landmark exhibition Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960–1980, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2011-2012); Traveled to: MoMA PS1, New York, NY (2012-2013); and Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA (2013); Eleven from California, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (1972); Synthesis, JAM (Just Above Midtown), New York, NY (1974); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1994); and L.A. Object and David Hammons Body Prints, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY; Roberts & Tilton Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2006).

Davis’ work resides in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; and the Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO.