Noah Davis at the Barbican: long overdue, emotional and timely
Amah-Rose Abrams | Wallpaper | 7th February 2025
This “beautiful” retrospective speaks to unfulfilled potential. Davis died young, just as he found his painterly voice. Drawing on family photos and scenes from TV, he painted “impeccably composed” scenes of Black life. What sets them apart is their uncanny, “dream-like” quality. A man rides a unicorn. Figures, with blurry faces, are set in dreamy scenes. Yet his early death is omnipresent. Says one critic “Davis is forever a young artist on his way … when everything seemed possible.”