Description
Alonzo Davis is an artist, art educator, university administrator, and co-founder of Brockman Gallery (1967-1990) in Los Angeles. Davis was born in 1942 and grew up in Tuskegee, Alabama, and Los Angeles, California. He attended Los Angeles City College (LACC) and graduated with a BA from Pepperdine University in 1964, later earning a BFA and MFA from Otis Art Institute. Davis taught art at Manual Arts High School and Crenshaw High School, while also helping to manage Brockman Gallery. He later taught at several colleges, including California State University, Northridge. He also served as dean at San Antonio Art Institute and Memphis College of Art. His own artwork includes many different media, including murals, collage, and mixed media bamboo pieces. In this interview, Davis discusses growing up in Tuskegee, moving to Los Angeles, and his early interest in art; attending LACC and Pepperdine, including art curriculum; 1966 cross-country road trip with his brother, Dale Brockman Davis, when they met Black artists and attended the March Against Fear in Jackson, Mississippi; founding Brockman Gallery with Dale in 1967, exhibiting artists like David Hammons, Doyle Lane, and Ruth Waddy; connecting to networks of artists and gallerists; establishing the nonprofit arm Brockman Gallery Productions, and supervising art and cultural events in Los Angeles; teaching at high schools and colleges; earning a BFA and MFA at Otis Art Institute, where he worked with Charles White; serving as dean at San Antonio Art Institute and Memphis College of Art; his own artwork, including pieces like Eye on '84, Homage to John Outterbridge, and Social Justice Series; international travels and inspiration for art; art residencies, including at the East-West Center in Hawaii; establishing A.I.R. Studio Paducah and the Alonzo Davis Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; reflections on his life and work, as well as the impact of Brockman Gallery.