Sonia Louise Davis is a visual artist, writer, and performer whose practice is invested in improvisation as a responsive and rigorous form of research that uses the body as a guide. Davis creates graphic scores using an invented notation and this vocabulary manifests itself across site-specific wall drawings, mark-making on found objects, and playful hand-crafted textiles using industrial tufting machines. For her first museum solo show, Davis will present a new body of work that includes custom steel instruments which will be activated by performers and improvisers over the course of the exhibition. The artist situates her work within a lineage of Black feminist abstraction, creating environments that engage with softness, tactility, resonance, and deep listening.

Sonia Louise Davis (b. 1988, New York, NY) earned her BA with honors in African American Studies from Wesleyan University and is an alumna of the Whitney Independent Study Program. Her solo exhibition, resonant frequencies, blossoming tones, at HESSE FLATOW (NY) was listed a “must see” by Artforum in 2022. She has presented her work at the Whitney Museum (NY), ACRE (Chicago), Sadie Halie Projects (Minneapolis), Ortega y Gasset (Brooklyn),  and Artists Space (NY), among other venues. Residencies and fellowships include the Laundromat Project’s Create Change Fellowship, Civitella Ranieri, New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship at the International Studio & Curatorial Program, Culture Push Fellowship for Utopian Practice, and STONELEAF RETREAT. Her newest book, slow and soft and righteous, improvising at the end of the world (and how we make a new one) was published in 2021 by Co—Conspirator Press, which operates out of the Feminist Center for Creative Work in Los Angeles. Sonia lives and works in Harlem.

QM-Jerome Foundation Fellow: Sonia Louise Davis is organized by Lindsey Berfond, Assistant Curator and Studio Program Manager.