Anna U Davis is known for her bold, colorful mixed-media paintings, where she explores social inequalities. Davis began expanding her artistic practice and developing her signature “Frocasian” characters after moving to Washington, D.C. in the 1990s. Frocasians appear in her art as abstracted grey-toned figures, inspired by her interracial marriage and her strongly held belief in social justice. What began as hard-edge acrylic paintings have evolved into mixed media works which incorporate acrylic paint, hand cut paper collage, appliqué assorted textiles, and traditional pen-and-ink drawing techniques. Davis is a two-time recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and has received multiple fellowships from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. In 2020, Davis was featured on the cover of the journal Feminist Studies, Issue 46.1. Recent solo shows include the Swedish American Museum (Chicago), Galerie Myrtis (Baltimore), the Embassy of Sweden (Washington, D.C.), and Davis Gallery (Copenhagen). Her work has been shown in additional solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Europe, Cuba (13th Havana Biennial) and Qatar and is held in public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe. In 2023 Davis was invited to speak about art and female empowerment during the State of the Arts Night at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC.
ANNA U DAVIS
b. 1975, Lund, Sweden
Lives and works in Washington DC
GRANTS / AWARDS / RESIDENCIES
GRANTS
2021 & 2015 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, NY
2023-21, 2019 DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Project Grant, Washington, DC
2013 Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Emergency Grant, New York, NY
2024, 2022-13, 2011 DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Arts and Humanities Fellowship, Washington, DC
AWARDS
2023 Show Award Winner - (Not) Strictly Painting 14, McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA, curated by Tim Brown
Finalist, Helen Frankenthaler Residency at ISCP
2022 Finalist, Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant
2021 Finalist, Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant
2020 Show Award Winner - SHIFT Online Exhibition, McLean Projects for the Arts, curated by Henry L. Thaggert
RESIDENCIES
2023 SWATCH Art Peace Hotel VR Residency, Shanghai, China
2011 Residency at Wip Gallery at Artisphere, Arlington, VA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
Road to Recovery, Brentwood Art Exchange, Brentwood, MD
2023
Reality Check, Davis Contemporary, Copenhagen, Denmark
2022
Reality Check, IA&A at Hillyer, Washington DC
2021
Reality Check, Swedish American Museum, Chicago, IL
2019
Take it Personal - Anna U Davis and Ola Kalnins, Bredgade Kunsthandel, Copenhagen, Denmark (Duo)
2018
Frocasian: Moving Beyond Social Constructs, Artist Proof, Washington DC
Damsels in Distress, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD
2017 - 2018
Witnesses, House of Sweden (Embassy of Sweden), Washington DC
2016
Anna U Davis - Going Big @ Dacha, Dacha Loft, Washington DC
2012
Pop-up, Gallery at Bloombars, Washington, DC
2011
A Work in Progress, Wip Gallery at Artisphere, Arlington, VA
2010
The Dance before the Kill, Long View Gallery, Washington, DC
2009
Bull’s-Eye, Long View Gallery, Washington, DC
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
(Not) Strictly Painting 14, McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA, curated by Tim Brown
The Swatch Art Peace Hotel: Love is Love, BaseCamp, Instituo Sant’Eugenio, Locarno, Switzerland
Pulse 2023, IA&A at Hillyer, Washington DC
2022
Fragile Beauty, I Street Galleries, Washington DC, curated by Elizabeth Ashe, Claude Elliott, Zsudayka Nzinga and Jarvis Grant
Body Language: Contemporary Approaches to Figuration, Brentwood Art Exchange, Brentwood, MD, curated by Andrea Limauro
Invasion, IA&A at Hillyer, Washington DC
Women of the Pandemic, Katara, Building 47, Gallery 2, Doha, Qatar
2021
Creativity in Quarantine: Women of the Pandemic, Qatar America Institute for Culture, Washington DC
Summer show, Oil and Pigments, Washington DC
Creativity in Quarantine: Women of the Pandemic, Qatar America Institute for Culture, Washington DC - Katara, Doha, Qatar, online
2020
Latela Curatorial x Artsy: Women in the Arts ~ Materiality - In the Flesh, Washington DC
SHIFT Online Exhibition, McLean Projects for the Arts, McLean, VA, curated by Henry L. Thaggert
2019
Building Bridges: The Politics of Love, Identity and Race II, Galeria Carmen Montilla, 13th Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba, Curators Myrtis Bedolla and Ana Joa
Where Have We Been, Center for the Arts Gallery, Towson University, Towson, MD, curated by Dr Erin Lehman and Dr. J. Susan Isaacs
2018
More or Less, Hemphill, Washington DC
2017
Oh Say, Can You See? Emigre Artist In America, Charles Krause / Reporting Fine Art, Washington DC
One Year Later, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Hyattsville, MD
2016
Consumption: Food as Paradox, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD
2015
These Mirrors Are Not Boxes, VisArts, Rockville, MD, curated by Kayleigh N. Bryant-Greenwell
2014
Emergence: International Artist to Watch, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD, curated by Sharon Burton, Robert Devereux, Deana Haggag, and Makgati Molebatsi
Untitled, Gallery OneTwentyEight, New York, NY
2013
Holiday Popsicle, Gallery OneTwentyEight, New York, NY, curated by Kazuko Miyamoto
Crowns, The Fridge, Washington, DC, curated by Zoma Wallace
Fear Strikes Back, Fine Art Gallery, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, curated by Helen Fredericks
The Newtown Projects: A Call to Arms, Charles Krause/ Reporting Fine Art, Washington, DC
2012
Zeitgeist III: Too Much Information, District of Columbia Art Center, Washington, DC
2010
Synergy, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC=
Party Crashers: Comic Book Culture Invades the Art World, Terrace Gallery at Artisphere, Arlington, VA, curated by Cynthia Connolly
SELECTED PRIVATE AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
The Swatch Art Peace Hotel Permanent Collection
Permanent Collection, DC Government Art Bank, Washington, DC
Dacha Loft, Washington, DC
American Humanistic Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership, Washington, DC
GCH Endowment to Promote Quality Early Childhood Education, Washington, DC
Dorothy Lichtenstein Private Collection, Captiva (FL) / Southampton (NY) / New York (NY)
David Lichtenstein and Jennifer Moore, Berkeley (CA)
PUBLIC PANELS/ TALKS
2023
Art x Female Empowerment panel, State of the Arts Night, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC
2018
Featured Speaker, Vital Voices: 2018 Global Mentoring Walk in Washington, DC, House of Sweden, Washington DC
Artist talk, Damsels in Distress, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD
2017
Artist talk with Carolina Falkholt, House of Sweden, Washington DC
Artist talk, Road to Recovery, House of Sweden, Washington DC
2016
Artist talk, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2024
Jenkins, Mark. “In the galleries: Transformations in 20th Century Abstraction.” Washington Post, May 10, 2024. Print
2023
Schjødt, Inge.“Tidens pointer skåret ud og til.” Kunstavisen. September 28, 2023
Children, Nicola. “Swatch at the Locarno Film Festival: the art that fixes time.” Vanity Fair Italy, August 11, 2023
Precious, Jasmine. “The story of the 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival: the Seventh Art under the stars.” ExibArt, August 8, 2023
2022
Jenkins, Mark. “In the galleries: The art of looking inward to provoke societal change.” Washington Post, February 11, 2022
Brown, Timothy. “The Personal and Political Art of Anna U Davis, ” IA&A at Hillyer Blog, February 2, 2022
Doecter-Loeb, Hannah. “City Lights: Look Inward With Anna U Davis’s Reality Check,” Washington City Paper, February 8, 2022
Brown, Timothy. “Reality Check: Interview with featured artist Anna U Davis and Tim Brown, Hillyer Director,” IA&A at Hillyer Blog, January 22, 2022
Giebenhain, Katy. “See Powerful Work by Anna U Davis at IA&A at Hillyer,” Big Pharma and the Barkeep Blog, January 29, 2022
2021
Wavzenek, Tom. “Review: A Dynamic View of Social Justice Issues at the Swedish American Museum,” Third Coast Review, September 4, 2021
Arviva, Janet. “Female Artists Explore Earthly Issues in Chicago Exhibitions,” Rebellious Magazine for Women, August 24, 2021
Masters, Jonathan. “God Has Infinite Frequency: Aphorisms for Our Fractured Age”
2020
“Special Issue: Feminist Analysis of Covid-19,” Feminist Studies, Issue 46.3
Weiss, Ellyn. “Anna U Davis: An Introduction (Art Essay,)” Feminist Studies, Issue 46.1
2018
Jenkins, Mark. “In the galleries: Six artists go deep into the weeds: Anna U Davis,” Washington Post: March, 1, 2018. Print
Capps, Kriston. “At Hemphill Fine Arts, The Past, Present and Future of Abstraction,” Washington City Paper: May 24, 2018
Weisel, Aden. “A Thousand Paper Cuts,” BMore Art, April 13, 2018
2017
Jenkins, Mark. “In the galleries: Synthetic consumer products prove to be a natural
medium: Émigré Artists, Washington Post: August 3, 2017
2016
Rudig, Stephanie “The People Issue: Conversations with 23 of D.C.'s most interesting
People,” Washington Citypaper: December 8, 2016
“Best Group Show: ‘Consumption: Food as Paradox’ at Galerie Myrtis,” Baltimore, City
Paper: September 13, 2016
Callahan, Maura and Kirkman, Rebekah. “Baltimore at Art Basel: Checking in with the
local artists and spaces that showcased in Miami,” Baltimore Citypaper: December 5, 2016
Kirkman, Rebekah. “A mélange of artists dive deep into food to talk about race, class, gender, and culture.” Baltimore City Paper: March 2, 2016
2015 Jenkins, Mark. “Anything but simplicity in these drawings .” The Washington Post: July 2,
2015
Jenkins, Mark. “In the galleries: Katrina and a tempest of symbols.” The Washington Post: May 15, 2015
2013
Jenkins, Mark. "Fear Strikes Back."The Washington Post: May 30, 2013
2012
Jenkins, Mark. "Anna U Davis."The Washington Post: July 27, 2012; C8
2011
Mack, Stephen. "Anna U Davis: Artist Profile." The Examiner: October 31, 2011
2010
Carothers, Sara. “Comics Crash the Party at the Artisphere and AAC.” Ballston Patch:
December 12, 2010
Bloch, Brandon. “The Dance before the Kill.” www.readysetdc.com. June, 2010
Weiss, Ellyn. “Dance Before the Kill: Anna U Davis at Long View.” www.pinklineproject.com. June 4, 2010
Heuser, Tara. “The Dance before the Kill.” www.pinklineproject.com. June 7, 2010
O’Sullivan, Michael. “Gallery Opening of the Week.” The Washington Post: May 28, 2010;
WE45 Aineki. “PHOTOS: Anna Davis' Dance Before the Kill @ Long View Gallery.”
www.brightestyoungthings.com. June 7, 2010
TELEVISION
2019
Önnevall, Fredrik. “Sverige! Säsong 22,” SVT, Malmo, Sweden, Lör 24 aug 02.00, 2019
2018
BMORE Lifestyle, “ segment about artist Anna U Davis,” FOX 45, aired 01/04/18
2017
Aubert, Amy. “Breast cancer survivor shares journey through art,”
http://wjla.com/news/local/breast-cancer-survivor-shares-journey-through-art . ABC7
2013
Rieger, Wendy. "The Newtown Project: A Call To
Arms."http://www.nbcwashington.com/video/#!/entertainment/the-scene/The-Newtown-
Project--A-Call-to-Arms/188422151. January 27, 2013
EDUCATION
2002
Bachelor Degree of Arts, Studio Art, Summa Cum Laude,
The University of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC
1995
Studies in Practical Philosophy, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
RELATED PROFESSIONAL ART EXPERIENCE
2022
Qatar America Institute for Culture Artist Delegation, Doha, Qatar
2020
Panelist for DCCAH
2017-present
Hillyer Art Space Advisory Board
2013
28th Mayor’s Art Award judge panelist - DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Washington, DC
Copyright © 2023 Anna U Davis. All Rights Reserved 2023