Noah Davis
Blue-chipEgon research · Artist market profile
The market, in context.
Explore Noah Davis’s auction history alongside the exhibitions, collections and gallery relationships behind the market.
Institutional research
Collections & exhibitions
Read holdings, exhibition history and their qualifications in context.
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Egon investment scores
Market position
Research updated
Auction record
Auction highlights
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| Work | Result | Venue and date |
|---|---|---|
| The Casting Call (2008) | $2,002,000 (with fees) | Sotheby's New York, November 18, 2025 |
| Snail Pace (2010) | $1,400,000 (with fees, $1.1m hammer) | Christie's New York, November 19, 2025 |
| Untitled (2014) | Not supplied | Christie's, October 11, 2024 |
5 further auction entries on record for Noah Davis — inside Egon.
Pricing
Price ranges by period
- 2019 2023
- $80,000-$1,500,000 at auction
- 2024 2025
- $1,100,000-$2,002,000 (significant price acceleration)
- Early career 2007 2015
- Primary market through Roberts & Tilton
Liquidity
Moderate to high liquidity. 15+ auction results documented. Strong institutional demand. Gallery representation through David Zwirner ensures market stability.
Collector base
Institutional collectors (MoMA, LACMA, Hammer, Whitney, Rubell); major private collectors including Mera and Donald Rubell, Dean Valentine, Michael Sherman, Mellon Foundation, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis, Aileen Getty, Glenstone Museum
Auction history
Market trajectory
Dramatic upward trajectory posthumously. Market accelerating significantly 2024-2025 with multiple million-dollar+ sales and new records. Positioned as rising star in contemporary figurative painting market.
Current auction record
- Date
- November 18, 2025
- Work
- The Casting Call (2008)
- Venue
- Sotheby's New York
- Amount
- $2,002,000 (with fees)
- Increase from previous
- 33% increase ($502,000 above previous record)
Previous auction record
- Date
- November 17, 2022
- Work
- Congo #7 (2014)
- Venue
- Christie's
- Amount
- $1,500,000
Market position
Exceptionally strong. Two auction records set in November 2025. Major international touring retrospective (2024-2026) driving significant market attention and institutional validation. Estate now represented by David Zwirner (major blue-chip gallery). Strong secondary market activity at Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips. Featured in marquee evening sales alongside established contemporary masters.
Institutional presence
Research updated
Exhibitions
Exhibition history lifetime
Noah Davis: Nobody
- Type
- Solo
- Year
- 2008
- Venue
- Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles
Noah Davis: The Forgotten Works
- Note
- Inspired by Richard Brautigan's 'In Watermelon Sugar'
- Type
- Solo
- Year
- 2010
- Venue
- Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles
- Type
- Solo
- Venue
- Tilton Gallery, New York
- Years
- 2009, 2011
Savage Wilds
- Type
- Solo
- Year
- 2012
- Venue
- James Harris Gallery, Seattle
The Missing Link
- Type
- Solo
- Year
- 2013
- Venue
- Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles
Garden City
- Type
- Solo
- Year
- 2014
- Venue
- PAPILLION, Los Angeles
Imitation of Wealth
- Note
- Opened on day of artist's death; Davis made copies of works by Duchamp, Koons, Flavin when museums refused loans
- Type
- Solo
- Year
- 2015
- Venue
- The Underground Museum, Los Angeles
30 Americans
- Note
- Davis was youngest participant
- Type
- Touring group exhibition
- Years
- 2008-2022
- Organizer
- Rubell Family Collection
Posthumous major exhibitions
Young Blood: Noah Davis, Kahlil Joseph, The Underground Museum
- Type
- Two-person with brother Kahlil Joseph
- Year
- 2016
- Venue
- Frye Art Museum, Seattle
Noah Davis
- Type
- Career retrospective
- Year
- 2020
- Venue
- David Zwirner, New York
- Curator
- Helen Molesworth
Noah Davis
- Type
- First UK presentation
- Year
- 2021
- Venue
- David Zwirner, London
The Milk of Dreams
- Type
- Group
- Year
- 2022
- Venue
- 59th Venice Biennale
Noah Davis: Ancient Reign
- Dates
- November 13, 2024 - January 25, 2025
- Focus
- Works on paper
- Venue
- David Zwirner, New York (69th Street)
- Curator
- Karon Davis
Noah Davis (Major International Retrospective)
- Scale
- Over 50-60 works spanning complete oeuvre
- Curators
- Eleanor Nairne and Wells Fray-Smith
- Significance
- First major international institutional survey; inaugural international institutional retrospective
Venues dates
- DAS MINSK, Potsdam, Germany: September 7, 2024 - January 5, 2025
- Barbican Art Gallery, London: February 6 - May 11, 2025
- Hammer Museum, Los Angeles: June 8 - August 31, 2025
- Philadelphia Museum of Art: January 24 - April 26, 2026
Museum collections
Institutional validation notes
Exceptional institutional presence for posthumous artist. Collections include MoMA, Whitney, LACMA, SFMOMA. Major international touring retrospective 2024-2026. Inclusion in Venice Biennale. Represented by blue-chip David Zwirner gallery.
Awards and recognition
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
- Year
- 2013
- Award
- Art Here and Now (AHAN): Studio Forum Award
Career & Biography
Research updated
Identity
- Birth death
- June 3, 1983 (Seattle, Washington) – August 29, 2015 (Ojai, California)
- Age at death
- 32
- Cause of death
- Rare form of soft tissue cancer
Family background
Son of Keven Davis (entertainment and sports lawyer representing Serena Williams, Venus Williams) and Faith Childs-Davis (artist, writer, and non-profit leader). Brother: Kahlil Joseph (filmmaker and video artist). Married to Karon Davis (sculptor and artist).
- Total works created
- Approximately 400 paintings, collages, and sculptures
Artistic context
"If I'm making any statement, it's to just show black people in normal scenarios, where drugs and guns are nothing to do with it" - described work as "instances where black aesthetics and modernist aesthetics collide."
Artistic Profile
Research updated
Influences
- Mark Rothko (color field abstraction)
- Marlene Dumas (figuration, psychology)
- Luc Tuymans (muted palette, history painting)
- Kerry James Marshall (Black representation)
- Fairfield Porter (American scenes)
- Peter Doig (dreamlike quality)
- Francis Bacon (psychological intensity)
- Caspar David Friedrich (Romantic atmosphere)
- Romare Bearden (African American subjects)
- Piet Mondrian (geometric abstraction)
- Max Ernst (Surrealism)
- Leipziger Schule and Magischer Realismus
Themes and subjects
Key themes subjects
- Everyday Black life depicted with dignity and normalcy
- Swimming pools and leisure scenes
- Architectural spaces (Paul Williams housing projects, modernist buildings)
- Family photographs and personal archives
- Egyptian mythology and African civilization
- Pop culture references (television, music)
- Surreal and dreamlike scenarios
- Portraiture (wife Karon, son Moses, family, community)
Movements and periods
Signature works
- Mary Jane (2008) - Girl in school clothes against botanical background
- American Sterile (2008) - Breakthrough work
- The Casting Call (2008) - Auction record holder, depicting women in casting call scenario
- Isis (2009) - Portrait of wife Karon as Egyptian goddess
- 1975 series (2013) - Based on mother's 1970s Chicago photographs
- Pueblo del Rio series (2014) - Reimagining LA public housing
- 40 Acres and a Unicorn (2007) - Fantasy and history blend
- Painting for My Dad (2011) - Father as hermit under starry sky
- Snail Pace (2010) - Man riding snail with gold leaf
- Influenced artists
- Significant influence on younger generation of figurative painters; referenced as key figure in 21st-century figurative painting revival
Stylistic innovations
Created unique synthesis of figurative and abstract painting; pioneered flat figurative style that influenced 2010s-2020s contemporary painting; developed distinctive approach to representing Black subjects that avoided cliché while engaging art history
Art historical positioning
Positioned as crucial figure in rise of figurative and representational painting in first two decades of 21st century. Seen as bridge between European painterly tradition (Dumas, Tuymans) and American abstraction (Rothko) while foregrounding Black experience. Compared to Kerry James Marshall for depicting Black life with complexity and dignity.
Critical Reception
Research updated
Critical reception
Critical consensus
Unanimously acclaimed as crucial figure in 21st-century figurative painting. Praised for technical mastery, emotional depth, complex engagement with representation of Black life, art historical literacy. Described as 'once-in-a-generation colorist' and visionary community builder. Legacy continues to grow posthumously.
Key critical themes
- Balance between abstraction and figuration
- Representation of Black life beyond trauma
- Art historical engagement (Rothko, Dumas, Tuymans, Marshall)
- Dreamlike, timeless quality
- Community building through The Underground Museum
- Collapsing of inherited images and imagined futures
Monographs catalogues
Noah Davis
- Year
- 2020
- Editor
- Helen Molesworth
- Contents
- Essays by Helen Molesworth, roundtable with Thomas Lax, Glenn Ligon, Julie Mehretu, Fred Moten; chronology by Lindsay Charlwood
- Publisher
- David Zwirner Books
Noah Davis: In Detail
- Year
- 2021
- Contents
- Essay by Franklin Sirmans, roundtable discussion, extensive chronology
- Publisher
- David Zwirner Books
Noah Davis (Retrospective Catalogue)
- Year
- 2024/2025
Contents
Essays by Tina M. Campt, Wells Fray-Smith, Paola Malavassi, Eleanor Nairne, Claudia Rankine; contributions by Dawoud Bey, T.J. Clark, Francesco Clemente, Karon Davis, Marlene Dumas, Helen Molesworth, Jason Moran
- Publisher
- Prestel (co-published)
Publications and media
Documentary coverage
BLKNWS
- Note
- Two-channel video installation often shown with Davis's work
- Years
- 2018-2019
- Creator
- Kahlil Joseph (brother)
Major publications reviews
Noah Davis (1983-2015)
- Date
- October 2015
- Type
- Obituary/critical appreciation
- Author
- Helen Molesworth
- Publication
- Artforum
- Content
- Multiple reviews of retrospectives 2024-2025
- Publication
- Artforum
Significance
Described as 'compelling balance between art's contradictory aspirations: to social relevance and activism on the one hand, to autonomy on the other'
- Date
- February 2010
- Type
- Artist interview
- Quote
- "Painting does something to your soul that nothing else can. It's visceral and immediate."
- Publication
- Dazed
- Date
- February 2020
- Focus
- David Zwirner exhibition review
- Publication
- The Brooklyn Rail
- Quote
- "The show [at David Zwirner New York] is so good—yet so poignantly final—that it leaves you feeling both euphoric and wretched"
- Author
- Sebastian Smee
- Publication
- The Washington Post
View 4 more records
Quote
"What's remarkable about Davis' work is that he's very ahead of the curve on a sort of flat figurative painting that's absolutely dominated the 21st century."
- Author
- Jerry Saltz
- Publication
- New York Magazine
- Quote
- "establishes him as one of the signal figurative painters of the era, and a once-in-a-generation colorist."
- Author
- Andrew Russeth
- Publication
- Surface
- Year
- 2025
- Author
- Novuyo Moyo
- Content
- Review of Barbican retrospective
- Publication
- e-flux Criticism
- Date
- September 2024
- Focus
- DAS MINSK retrospective
- Publication
- Wallpaper*
Gallery & Representation
Research updated
- Fair presence
- Represented at major art fairs through David Zwirner (Art Basel, Frieze, etc.)
Representation
- Since
- 2020 (posthumous)
- Significance
- Top-tier blue-chip gallery representing estate
- Estate gallery
- David Zwirner (New York, London, Los Angeles, Paris, Hong Kong)
- Exhibition activity
- Highly active posthumously with David Zwirner. Multiple solo shows 2020-2024 in New York and London. Major international museum tour 2024-2026.
Secondary market galleries
- Roberts Projects, Los Angeles (formerly Roberts & Tilton)
- Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips (auction houses)
Lifetime gallery representation
- Note
- Gallery became Roberts Projects after Jack Tilton's death
- Years
- 2007-2012/13 (approximately 5 years)
- Dealer
- Bennett Roberts
- Primary gallery
- Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, California
Geographic reach
Estate managed through David Zwirner. Works available through gallery and secondary market. High demand, limited supply given artist's death at age 32.
Sources & research notes
Egon’s artist research combines historical auction records, recent sales, institutional history, critical reception and gallery information. Researched auction records and auction highlights are identified separately.
Read prices with their work, sale date, currency and stated basis. Egon’s market assessments are distinct from reported auction results.
Reference: Egon, “Noah Davis: Market Intelligence & Investment Profile.”
Research updates by section
These dates show when Egon’s research sections were updated. Source retrieval dates, where supplied above, refer to individual evidence notes.
Ranking updated . Research sections follow their own update dates.
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