Background
Davis was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on November 11, 1945.
Davis was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on November 11, 1945.
He studied at Los Angeles City College before earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California. There he studied with noted ceramist Carleton Balliol
Through the gallery and his broader community work, Davis became an important promoter of African-American artists in Los Los Angeles He moved to Los Angeles in 1956. He would eventually moved beyond vessels and other traditional ceramic forms, instead focusing on sculpture.
He was inspired by assemblage art scene that emerged in Los Angeles"s African-American community following the Watts Rebellion of 1965.
He did graduate work towards his Master of Fine Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles but stopped the program after encountering resistance towards his assemblage style. Davis also worked as an art teacher at Dorsey High School.
Dale and Alonzo Davis ran from 1967 to 1989. They were inspired to found the gallery after a consciousness-raising road trip across the United States and Canada in 1966.
They showcased the work of African-American artists from Los Angeles and elsewhere, provided them with a rare opportunity to exhibit and sell their work in Los Angeles"s segregated art scene.
Included among their list of local artists were: Charles Wilbert White, Betye Saar, John Outterbridge, Noah Purifoy, Tim Washington, Doyle Lane, and Marion Epting. By the early 1970s, the brothers had transformed the gallery into a broader community art space and hosted a festival in Leimert Park. Gallery shows include:
Gallery Negra
Bob Jefferson Gallery, Oakland
Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles
, Los Angeles
He has appeared in many group exhibitions, including:
California Black Craftsmen, Mills College Art Gallery, 1970
Eleven from California, Studio Museum in Harem, 1972
Los Angeles 1972: A Panorama of Black Artists, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1972
Collage and Assemblage, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, 1975
Black Art: The Los Angeles Connection, Los Angeles Convention Center, 1982
Artists Teachers, Museum of African American Art, Santa Monica, 1983
Watts: Art and Social Change in Los Angeles, Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, 2003
Los Angeles Object and David Hammons Body Prints, Tilton Gallery, 2006
Distinctly Los Angeles: An African American Perspective, M. Hanks Gallery, Santa Monica, 2009
Now Dig This! Art & Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980, Hammer Museum, 2011
Places of Validation, California African American Museum, 2011
Diverted Destruction 6, California African American Museum and Loft at Liz"s, 2013.
