▲ The installation view of the exhibition ⓒ Stephen Friedman Gallery

Stephen Friedman Gallery is pleased to present 'clouds,' Kenturah Davis’ debut solo exhibition in the UK.

The drawing series that comprise this show are united by a common text—an essay penned by Davis that explores perception as an expressive and existential state.

▲ planar vessel XXVII (jada), Carbon pencil rubbing and debossed text on igarashi kozo paper, 75.6 x 75.6cm, 2024 ⓒ Kenturah Davis, Stephen Friedman Gallery

The artist’s writing flows through themes of dance, African diaspora, musical notation, literature, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and theoretical physics, invoking the guiding voices of choreographer Katherine Dunham, composer Florence B. Price, theorist Saidiya Hartman, author Toni Morrison, and physicist Carlo Rovelli.

Each of Davis’ bodies of work is a study in movement that translates photographs taken by the artist, recognizing her drawings as dimensional vessels on flat planes where she charts, layers, and reimagines significance.

▲ planar vessel XXIX (marcella), Carbon pencil rubbing and debossed text on igarashi kozo paper, Five parts, each: 100.3 x 75.6cm, 2024 ⓒ Kenturah Davis, Stephen Friedman Gallery

Two of Davis’ series are portrait-based, featuring grouped drawings of figures in various postures and capturing the gestures of Black women invited to her studio for improvisational movement photo shoots.

Drawing closer to the work, portions of Davis’ essay emerge, detailing the extraordinary careers of Katherine Dunham and Florence B. Price, two trailblazing Black creatives of the twentieth century who used art to pursue individual and societal metamorphosis.

▲ volume II (marjani), Carbon pencil rubbing and debossed text on igarashi kozo paper with a walnut vessel in a walnut frame, 75.6 x 75.6cm, 2024 ⓒ Kenturah Davis, Stephen Friedman Gallery

Davis’ second portrait series features single drawings of figures framed with recessed mantles displaying vessels of various proportions, crafted from ebony from Ghana and ash from Los Angeles.

These multimedia works can be likened to her series 'Text(tiles),' multi-panel artworks that juxtapose portraits with woven fabrics, underscoring the etymological root of text from the Latin word 'to weave.'

▲ clouds V, Indigo rubbing and debossed text on igarashi kozo paper in maple frame, 50.8 x 50.8cm, 2024 ⓒ Kenturah Davis, Stephen Friedman Gallery

The third series is a group of twelve drawings based on Davis’ snapshots of clouds, considering the natural formation through the lens of quantum physics.

Drawing from Rovelli’s writings on the relativity of time, Davis’ compositions encourage her audience to question systems of artistry, science, philosophy, history, race, and gender for which meaning is assigned, not inherent.

For each work, Davis arranges the text in a new formation to highlight different passages, incising the sculptural passages into a polymer plate and embossing them onto paper with an etching press.

▲ clouds I, Indigo rubbing and debossed text on igarashi kozo paper in maple frame, 50.8 x 50.8cm, 2024 ⓒ Kenturah Davis, Stephen Friedman Gallery

She scores each parchment with a grid, rendering the photograph section by section, using sharpened charcoal pencils for portrait works and powdered indigo pigments for cloud works.

With an exacting and meticulous hand, Davis creates a surface that resembles an ancient rubbing, emphasizing how light and dark shadows reveal essential ideas within her essay.

▲ duration I (jada), Lenticular print, 48.9 x 68.3cm, 2024 ⓒ Kenturah Davis, Stephen Friedman GalleryThrough the blurred focus of the body, the soft edges of the cloud, and the swelling surface of the vessel, Davis balances the rigid with the fluid, creating structured systems wherein physical and meteorological bodies roam freely.

The exhibition is located at 5–6 Cork Street, London, W1S 3LQ, and runs from Friday, 31 May to Saturday, 20 July 2024. The opening event is on Friday, 31 May, from 6-8pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday–Friday, 10am–6pm, and Saturday, 11am–5pm.

Sayart / Maria Kim, sayart2022@gmail.com