Digital Editions
Newsletters
Subscribe
Digital Editions
Newsletters
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Los Angeles
news

Los Angeles’s Underground Museum abruptly closes as directors depart

The museum, founded by the late Noah Davis and his wife, the artist Karon Davis, announced the sudden closure in a statement that offered few specifics but alluded to inner turmoil

Benjamin Sutton
16 March 2022
Share
View of the now-closed Noah Davis exhibition at the Underground Museum Photo by Elon Schoenholz Photography, courtesy the Underground Museum

View of the now-closed Noah Davis exhibition at the Underground Museum Photo by Elon Schoenholz Photography, courtesy the Underground Museum

The Underground Museum, an institution in Los Angeles’s Arlington Heights neighbourhood that was founded in 2012 by the late painter Noah Davis and his wife, sculptor Karon Davis, announced on 15 March that it will close indefinitely and its co-directors, Meg Onli and Cristina Pacheco, are leaving.

Onli, a former associate curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, had joined the Underground Museum full-time in December. Pacheco had become co-director alongside Onli after serving as the museum’s chief operating officer and co-interim director since 2020. Pacheco had also been on the museum’s board since 2015. In a statement, Karon Davis commented on how "hard it has been for our family to let go enough to allow Meg and Cristina to do their jobs". Requests for comments and more information had not been returned at press time.

The museum had recently opened a major exhibition of paintings by Noah Davis, versions of which had previously been on view at David Zwirner’s galleries in New York and London. In a statement posted to the museum’s Instagram account and website, Karon Davis said her family “were not able to fully grieve [Noah’s] loss privately or take the time needed to heal” following his death from a rare form of cancer in 2015, aged 32, adding that, “This was made all too clear when Noah’s paintings returned to the space for the first time since his passing.”

In the years following Noah Davis’s death, his work gained increasingly widespread acclaim and became very sought-after in the art market. In January 2020, David Zwirner opened its first exhibition in collaboration with Davis’s estate. At the December 2021 edition of Art Basel in Miami Beach, the gallery sold a Davis painting for $1.4m.

Karon Davis’s career has likewise taken off in the years since her husband’s death. A sculptor known for crafting incredibly affecting figures and entire life-size scenes, she won a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award in 2017. Her solo exhibition with Jeffrey Deitch, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, was one of New York City's most buzzed-about gallery shows of 2021.

Her statement on the museum’s website cites the compounding stresses not only of growing attention but also the Covid-19 pandemic and racial justice movements. “For now, we ask that everyone give us the space and privacy needed to understand the future of the museum and to heal individually and collectively,” she writes. “We simply do not have any answers right now.”

Los AngelesNoah DavisUnderground Museum
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Data protection
Privacy policy
Frequently Asked Questions
Subscription T&Cs
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Instagram
Bluesky
LinkedIn
Facebook
TikTok
YouTube
© The Art Newspaper

Related content

Acquisitionsnews
27 August 2024

Lacma, Moca and the Hammer Museum jointly acquire significant collection of works by Los Angeles artists

The three museums will share 260 pieces from the collection of Jarl and Pamela Mohn, plus recent and future acquisitions of works by local artists

Benjamin Sutton
Art Baselnews
8 February 2024

Art Basel reveals 287 galleries participating in its next Swiss fair, including 22 first-time exhibitors

June's event will be the first edition of the world’s most important art fair under the direction of Maike Cruse

Benjamin Sutton
Frieze Los Angeles 2022preview
18 February 2022

Noah Davis’s paintings come back home to his Los Angeles museum

After stops in New York and London, the late artist’s works will be on view at the Underground Museum, which he and his wife founded

Wallace Ludel
Frieze Los Angeles 2025interview
21 February 2025

Los Angeles-based producer Michael Sherman on his 'love at first sight' buying strategy

The film producer reveals that his first purchase was a Banksy, and how he missed the chance to buy a work by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, who died last month

Benjamin Sutton