Leimert Park Art Festival, First Place in Sculpture
Patron(s)
studied with F. Carlton Ball
Dale Brockman Davis (born 1945) is a Los Angeles–based African-American artist, gallerist and educator best known for his assemblage sculpture and ceramic work that addresses themes of African American history and music, especially jazz. Along with his brother, artist Alonzo Davis, he co-founded Brockman Gallery in Leimert Park. Through the gallery and his broader community work, Davis became an important promoter of African-American artists in Los Angeles.
Biography
Davis was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on November 11, 1945. He moved to Los Angeles in 1956.[1] He studied at Los Angeles City College before earning his B.F.A. at the University of Southern California. There he studied with noted ceramist F. Carlton Ball.[2] He would eventually move 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 M.F.A. at the University of California, Los Angeles but stopped the program after encountering resistance towards his assemblage style.[3]
Davis also worked as an art teacher and chairman of the art department at Dorsey High School.[4]
Brockman Gallery
Dale and Alonzo Davis ran Brockman Gallery 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 named the gallery after their grandmother, Della Brockman.[5] 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.[6]
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 LA 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
L.A. 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[9]
Places of Validation, California African American Museum, 2011
Diverted Destruction 6, California African American Museum and Loft at Liz's, 2013
New Digs/Old Finds: Dale Davis, Assemblage Sculptures (solo exhibition), Loft2, San Pedro, 2019
Notes
^Von Blum, Paul (September 2014). "An Iconic Artistic Life: Dale Davis and His Work". The Journal of Pan African Studies. 7 (3): 231–244.
^"Black Artists of Los Angeles". Studio Potter. 9 (2): 16–25. June 1981.
^"Black Artists of Los Angeles". Studio Potter. 9 (2): 25. June 1981.
^Montgomery, Evangeline J. (1970). California Black Craftsmen. Oakland: Mills College Art Gallery.
^Dale Davis (2011). "Brockman Gallery". In Tilton, Connie Rogers; Charlwood, Lindsay (eds.). L.A. Object & David Hammonds Body Prints. New York: Tilton Gallery. pp. 76–85. ISBN978-1-4276-1374-5.
^Widener, Daniel (2010). Black Arts West: Culture and Struggle in Postwar Los Angeles. Durham: Duke University Press. pp. 158–159. ISBN978-0822346791.
