05/28/2026
We are thrilled to announce that Sable Venus (2016–2024) by Karon Davis has joined the permanent collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem.
The life size plaster figure depicts a gold painted woman rising from the crest of a wave, her right hand raised as though lifting the form above her, braids cascading down her back fastened with puka shells. The work references Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and Robin Coste Lewis’s National Book Award winning poem Voyage of the Sable Venus, a meditation on the depiction of the Black female figure across centuries of Western art. Created over eight years, the sculpture speaks to Davis’s use of plaster as a material tied to ancient practices of preservation and memory.
This acquisition was made possible by Lianne Barnes, with thanks to Thelma Golden and the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Karon Davis (b. 1977, Reno, Nevada) creates sculptures and multimedia installations that touch on issues of history, race, and violence in the United States. Drawing on her background in theater and film, Davis creates haunting tableaux inhabited by protagonists both historical and imagined.
Davis is the 2025 recipient of the Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize, with a forthcoming solo exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum opening November 2026.
Karon Davis
Sable Venus, 2016-2024
Plaster, cloth, chicken wire, glass eyes, shells, sand, paint, gold leaf, light, wood and steel
90 x 68 x 65 inches
228.6 x 172.7 x 165.1 cm.
