On Thursday, February 10 at 6:00 p.m. PT, the Otis College Department of Alumnx Relations will welcome Alonzo Davis ('73 MFA Fine Arts) to discuss his art practice and current projects with Sarah Russin, Executive Director at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), as part of the Alumnx Exploration Series. Previous speakers in the series have included Vincent Ramos (’02 BFA Fine Arts) and Davis Ngarupe ('12 BFA Communication Arts), among others. The event will be held remotely over Zoom, and is free and open to the public. To register to attend, please visit this link.
Davis’s career as an artist spans four decades. A native of Tuskegee, Alabama, he moved with his family to Los Angeles in his early teens. After acquiring an undergraduate degree at Pepperdine College, he earned an MFA in Printmaking and Design at the then-named Otis Art Institute. Influenced early on by the assemblagists, Davis soon took wing and began to experiment with a variety of mediums, techniques, and themes. At the suggestion of artist and former professor, Charles White, Davis began to produce prints and paintings in series.
While he was inspired by travel to Africa, the Caribbean, and American Southwest, the colors and patterns of the Pacific Rim cultures also seeped into Davis’s artwork. During the ’70s and early ’80s, Davis’s involvement in the California mural movement culminated with the 1984 Olympic Murals project. His Eye on ’84 was one of 10 murals on the walls of the downtown Los Angeles Harbor Freeway.
From 1967 to 1989, Davis and his brother Dale Davis ran the Brockman Gallery in Leimert Park as a way to provide artists of color—including several who attended Otis, such as David Hammons and Ulysses Jenkins—with a place to exhibit their work. They also provided studio space to artists in adjacent buildings.
In addition to running the Brockman Gallery with his brother, Davis also taught art to high school and college students at Crenshaw High School, Manual Arts High School, Mount Saint Antonio College, Pasadena City College, and UCLA. He also taught at the San Antonio Art Institute and was the dean of the Memphis College of Art from 1993 to 2002. The Alonzo Davis Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, where Davis also studied, is open to writers, composers, and artists of African or Latino descent.
For more information and to view work by Davis, please visit alonzodavisstudios.com.
Main image: Courtesy of Alonzo Davis.