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Kenturah Davis — Rikki Suite
Kenturah Davis

Rikki Suite

2020

Rikki Suite invites sustained looking, revealing its formal intelligence gradually through the layered interplay of UV ink, chine collé, and naturally dyed Bhutan paper. Kenturah Davis constructs the image through text, deploying language not as caption or commentary but as the very material of representation, each word and letter contributing to the contours of a face, a figure, a presence. The warm, organic ground of the Bhutan paper, tinted through natural dyeing processes, lends the work a quiet tactility that counterbalances the precision of the UV-printed marks, creating a surface that feels simultaneously archival and alive. Davis works at the intersection of portraiture and conceptual rigor, treating language as a structural force rather than a transparent vehicle for meaning. Her practice proceeds from the conviction that the words and grammars through which human experience is organized are neither fixed nor neutral, and that art can expose and reimagine those conditions. In Rikki Suite, this philosophy materializes in the tension between likeness and abstraction, between the legibility of the portrait and the accumulated weight of the text from which it is built. The result is a work that holds its subject in a kind of productive suspension, where identity and language are shown to be mutually constitutive rather than separately given. Dated 2020 and hand-signed by the artist, Rikki Suite is offered unframed, allowing the collector to consider its presentation with full creative latitude. At 45.7 by 31.8 centimeters, the work operates at an intimate scale well suited to focused, private viewing, rewarding close attention with the richness of its material and conceptual layers. Davis has established a significant critical presence across international exhibitions and institutional collections, and works on paper from this period represent a compelling entry point into a body of work that continues to grow in stature.

Medium
UV ink print, chine colle on natural dyed Bhutan paper
Overall
Signed
Yes

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About this work

Kenturah Davis, Rikki Suite, 2020

Rikki Suite invites sustained looking, revealing its formal intelligence gradually through the layered interplay of UV ink, chine collé, and naturally dyed Bhutan paper. Kenturah Davis constructs the image through text, deploying language not as caption or commentary but as the very material of representation, each word and letter contributing to the contours of a face, a figure, a presence. The warm, organic ground of the Bhutan paper, tinted through natural dyeing processes, lends the work a quiet tactility that counterbalances the precision of the UV-printed marks, creating a surface that feels simultaneously archival and alive. Davis works at the intersection of portraiture and conceptual rigor, treating language as a structural force rather than a transparent vehicle for meaning. Her practice proceeds from the conviction that the words and grammars through which human experience is organized are neither fixed nor neutral, and that art can expose and reimagine those conditions. In Rikki Suite, this philosophy materializes in the tension between likeness and abstraction, between the legibility of the portrait and the accumulated weight of the text from which it is built. The result is a work that holds its subject in a kind of productive suspension, where identity and language are shown to be mutually constitutive rather than separately given. Dated 2020 and hand-signed by the artist, Rikki Suite is offered unframed, allowing the collector to consider its presentation with full creative latitude. At 45.7 by 31.8 centimeters, the work operates at an intimate scale well suited to focused, private viewing, rewarding close attention with the richness of its material and conceptual layers. Davis has established a significant critical presence across international exhibitions and institutional collections, and works on paper from this period represent a compelling entry point into a body of work that continues to grow in stature.

Medium
UV ink print, chine colle on natural dyed Bhutan paper
Dimensions
overall: 45.7 x 31.8 cm
Year
2020
Signed
Hand-signed by the artist
Seen at
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) Benefit Auction

Related themes

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