Artist Statement – Anna U Davis
Art serves a dual purpose for me. It is a vehicle to express my socio-political views and a coping mechanism. As a young child, I would create pictures to manage my emotions, and as an adult, my art practice helps me to deal with the long-term side effects of my
breast cancer treatments. Early on in my development as an artist, I decided to break down the human form into basic geometric shapes and lean on expressing my characters’ emotions through abstracted exaggerated placements of their facial features and body parts. My signature gray Frocasian characters were inspired by my interracial marriage. My husband was born to a Swedish mother and an African American father in Lund, Sweden, and while we both grew up in the same town and went to the same school, our life experience has been very different due to the color of our skin.
Society has a long way to go to become inclusive, equal, and to appreciate our diversity and recognize our joint humanity and this is why I have spent most of my career creating work investigating social justice issues, focusing primarily on gender relations. My first artist love was the fearless Frida Kahlo and her unapologetic storytelling and how she challenged social norms. I fell in love with the bold black outlines of Keith Haring’s work, the striking collages by Romare Bearden and the organic structures of Antoni Gaudí.
All of these artists have served as an inspiration for the development of my own artistic style in which I combine multiple mediums on canvas, including acrylic paint, hand cut paper collage, ink drawing, pumice and appliqué textiles.
CV
ANNA U DAVIS b. 1975, Lund, Sweden
Lives and works in Washington DC
GRANTS / AWARDS / RESIDENCIES
2021, 2015
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, NY
2020
Show award winner – SHIFT Online Exhibition, McLean Projects for the Arts, McLean, VA, curated by Henry L. Thaggert
2022-2021, 2019
DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Projects Events and Festivals (Individuals,) Washington, DC
2022-2013, 2011
DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Arts and Humanities Fellowship Program (Individuals,) Washington, DC
2013
Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Emergency Assistance Grant, New York, NY
2011
Residency at Wip Gallery at Artisphere, Arlington, VA
SELECTED SOLO AND DUO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Reality Check, Davis Contemporary, Copenhagen, Denmark (forthcoming fall)
2022
Reality Check, IA&A at Hillyer, Washington DC
2021
Reality Check, Swedish American Museum, Chicago, IL
2019
Take it Personal -Anna U Davis and Ola Kalnins, Bredgade Kunsthandel, Copenhagen, Denmark (Duo)
2018
Frocasian: Moving Beyond Social Constructs, Artist Proof, Washington DC
Damsels in Distress, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD
2017 – 2018
Witnesses, House of Sweden (Embassy of Sweden), Washington DC
2016
Anna U Davis – Going Big @ Dacha, Dacha Loft, Washington DC
2012
Pop-up, Gallery at Bloombars, Washington, DC
2011
A Work in Progress, Wip Gallery at Artisphere, Arlington, VA
2010
The Dance before the Kill, Long View Gallery, Washington, DC
2009
Bull’s-Eye, Long View Gallery, Washington, DC
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Invasion, IA&A at Hillyer, Washington DC
Fragile Beauty, I Street Galleries, Washington DC, curated by Elizabeth Ashe, Claude Elliott, Zsudayka Nzinga and Jarvis Grant (forthcoming)
Body Language: Contemporary Approaches to Figuration, Brentwood Art Exchange, Brentwood, MD, curated by Andrea Limauro (forthcoming)
Women of the Pandemic, Katara, Building 47, Gallery 2, Doha, Qatar
2021
Creativity in Quarantine: Women of the Pandemic, Qatar America Institute for Culture, Washington DC
Summer show, Oil and Pigments, Washington DC
Creativity in Quarantine: Women of the Pandemic, Qatar America Institute for Culture, Washington DC – Katara, Doha, Qatar, online
2020
Latela Curatorial x Artsy: Women in the Arts ~ Materiality – In the Flesh, Washington DC
SHIFT Online Exhibition, McLean Projects for the Arts, McLean, VA, curated by Henry L. Thaggert
2019
Building Bridges: The Politics of Love, Identity and Race II, Galeria Carmen Montilla, 13th Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba, Curators Myrtis Bedolla and Ana Joa
Where Have We Been, Center for the Arts Gallery, Towson University, Towson, MD, curated by Dr Erin Lehman and Dr. J. Susan Isaacs
2018
More or Less, Hemphill, Washington DC
2017
Oh Say, Can You See? Emigre Artist In America, Charles Krause / Reporting Fine Art, Washington DC
One Year Later, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Hyattsville, MD
2016
Consumption: Food as Paradox, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD
2015
These Mirrors Are Not Boxes, VisArts, Rockville, MD, curated by Kayleigh N. Bryant-Greenwell
2014
Emergence: International Artist to Watch, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD, curated by Sharon Burton, Robert Devereux, Deana Haggag, and Makgati Molebatsi
Untitled, Gallery OneTwentyEight, New York, NY
2013
Holiday Popsicle, Gallery OneTwentyEight, New York, NY, curated by Kazuko Miyamoto
Crowns, The Fridge, Washington, DC, curated by Zoma Wallace
Fear Strikes Back, Fine Art Gallery, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, curated by Helen Fredericks
The Newtown Projects: A Call to Arms, Charles Krause/ Reporting Fine Art, Washington, DC
2012
Zeitgeist III: Too Much Information, District of Columbia Art Center, Washington, DC
2010
Synergy, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC=
Party Crashers: Comic Book Culture Invades the Art World, Terrace Gallery at Artisphere, Arlington, VA, curated by Cynthia Connolly
SELECTED PRIVATE AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Permanent Collection, DC Government Art Bank, Washington, DC
Dacha Loft, Washington, DC
American Humanistic Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership, Washington, DC
GCH Endowment to Promote Quality Early Childhood Education, Washington, DC
Dorothy Lichtenstein Private Collection, Captiva (FL) / Southampton (NY) / New York (NY)
David Lichtenstein and Jennifer Moore, Berkeley (CA)
