Alonzo Davis, known for founding one of America’s first Black-owned galleries, died on January 27 at 82 years. The news of his passing was confirmed by Los Angeles gallery Parrasch Heijnen, which represents him.
His prints, paintings, performances, and installations were inspired by his travels. “The magic of the Southwest United States, Brazil, Haiti and West Africa has penetrated my work,” he wrote in an artist statement. “Southern California, my home for thirty years, has also had an indelible impact and the colors and rhythms of the Pacific Rim continue to infiltrate. In recent years, I have been creating works about social justice issues and the worsening climate crisis.”
Born in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1942, Davis was an artist in his own right. He received a BA from Pepperdine University in Los Angeles in 1964), as well as a BFA and an MFA from Otis Art Institute, also in Los Angeles.
His participation in the James Meredith March, dubbed the “March Against Fear,” a 21-day solitary march down U.S. Highway 51 from the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee to the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, in 1966, influenced his perspective and actions. “There was room for me,” he told the Hammer Museum in an interview, adding “that there was an opportunity for a person of color to be an artist and to make a statement.”
In 1967, with his brother Dale Brockman Davis, he cofounded Brockman Gallery in Los Angeles, which some have credited with being the first major Black-owned contemporary art gallery in the United States. Together, they championed Black art and artists at a time when they were often overlooked and underrepresented. The gallery, which remained open through 1990, mounted shows that included work by artists such as David Hammons, Suzanne Jackson, Kerry James Marshall, Senga Nengudi, John Outterbridge, Noah Purifoy, and Carrie Mae Weems.
The gallery was named for the brothers’ maternal grandmother and was located in a Leimert Park storefront, an area in the city that was regarded as a cultural center for African Americans. Over its 23-year span, Brockman came to include a nonprofit and studio and living spaces.
Davis has long been better known for his involvement with Brockman Gallery, but even early on, he showed his art in notable venues. Early works were featured at the Studio Museum in Harlem and Just Above Midtown, a New York gallery founded by Linda Goode Bryant.
In 2011, at the Hammer Museum, his work was included in the acclaimed survey “Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960–1980,” which went on to appear at MoMA PS1 and the Williams College Museum of Art. A solo exhibition of Davis’s work opens at Parrasch Heijnen on February 8.
