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Kenturah Davis — TXME I - bw - Jheanelle suite
Kenturah Davis — TXME I - bw - Jheanelle suite
Kenturah Davis

TXME I - bw - Jheanelle suite

2021

In "TXME I, bw, Jheanelle suite," Kenturah Davis deploys UV ink and chine collé on delicate kozo paper to produce a work that exists at the charged intersection of image and language. The chine collé technique, which bonds thin paper to a heavier support during printing, lends the surface a layered, almost palimpsestic quality that mirrors Davis's sustained inquiry into how text accumulates meaning beneath and within a visible form. The result is a work of quiet but insistent complexity, one in which the physical architecture of the print echoes the conceptual architecture of the artist's broader practice. Davis is known for constructing portraits and figurative works from handwritten script drawn from literature and thought produced within the African diaspora, treating language not as caption or ornament but as the very substance of representation. In this piece, those concerns find a concentrated, intimate expression suited to the modest scale of the work. At roughly 28 by 43 centimeters, "TXME I, bw, Jheanelle suite" demands close attention, rewarding the viewer who moves toward it with a gradual unfolding of graphic and linguistic detail. Davis holds an MFA in painting from Yale University and maintains studios across Los Angeles, New Haven, and Accra, a geographic range that reflects the diasporic scope of her research. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, the Rubell Museum, the Blanton Museum of Art, and the Bunker Artspace, and has been exhibited at institutions including the California African American Museum and the SCAD Museum of Art. This signed work, offered through the Headlands Center for the Arts Benefit Auction, represents an opportunity to acquire a refined example of a practice that has achieved significant institutional recognition.

Medium
UV ink print, chine colle on kozo paper
Sheet
Signed
Yes

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About this work

Kenturah Davis, TXME I - bw - Jheanelle suite, 2021

In "TXME I, bw, Jheanelle suite," Kenturah Davis deploys UV ink and chine collé on delicate kozo paper to produce a work that exists at the charged intersection of image and language. The chine collé technique, which bonds thin paper to a heavier support during printing, lends the surface a layered, almost palimpsestic quality that mirrors Davis's sustained inquiry into how text accumulates meaning beneath and within a visible form. The result is a work of quiet but insistent complexity, one in which the physical architecture of the print echoes the conceptual architecture of the artist's broader practice. Davis is known for constructing portraits and figurative works from handwritten script drawn from literature and thought produced within the African diaspora, treating language not as caption or ornament but as the very substance of representation. In this piece, those concerns find a concentrated, intimate expression suited to the modest scale of the work. At roughly 28 by 43 centimeters, "TXME I, bw, Jheanelle suite" demands close attention, rewarding the viewer who moves toward it with a gradual unfolding of graphic and linguistic detail. Davis holds an MFA in painting from Yale University and maintains studios across Los Angeles, New Haven, and Accra, a geographic range that reflects the diasporic scope of her research. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, the Rubell Museum, the Blanton Museum of Art, and the Bunker Artspace, and has been exhibited at institutions including the California African American Museum and the SCAD Museum of Art. This signed work, offered through the Headlands Center for the Arts Benefit Auction, represents an opportunity to acquire a refined example of a practice that has achieved significant institutional recognition.

Medium
UV ink print, chine colle on kozo paper
Dimensions
sheet: 28.6 x 43.2 cm
Year
2021
Signed
Hand-signed by the artist
Seen at
Headlands Center for the Arts Benefit Auction

Related themes

Mohn Art Collective

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