Damien Davis: “Color Cargo”
Damien Davis
September 6-November 3, 2019
The Visual Arts Center of Richmond presents “Color Cargo,” an exhibition of work by Damien Davis, curated by Jennifer-Navva Milliken. “Color Cargo” examines, through the distinct voice of the artist, the role of wood in historical and contemporary commercial transport—from the mid-Atlantic slave trade to e-commerce—and the subjective power of color as a tool for assigning value, in order to create a deceptively appealing space for confronting bias and dehumanization in contemporary society. “Color Cargo” debuted at the Center for Art in Wood (Philadelphia, Pa.) in May 2019.
Damien Davis is a New York-based artist who explores historical representations of blackness by seeking to unpack the visual language of various cultures and to question how these societies code and decode representations of race. Using digital tools to shape layers of materials both natural and synthetic, Davis composes stories, told through a lexicon of graphic figures and shapes, that oscillate between the personal memories of the artist and chapters of human history.
The exhibition program at the Center for Art in Wood is generously supported by the Cambium Giving Society of the Center for Art in Wood, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, and Windgate Foundation.
Videographer: Dan Murphy