Karon Davis

Melrose Gathering Place: Weaver's Walk

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE ARTWORK

Before Picasso was created by artist Karon Davis to honor the African artists that inspired Cubism in the early twentieth century. The form of the figure is inspired by the heddle pulley, a type of loom pulley used in West Africa among various ethnolinguistic groups to create abstract patterned textiles. 

The artwork is made of reinforced fiberglass with a stainless-steel internal armature and stands 18 feet high atop a tapered concrete base. The sculpture is located on the south side of Melrose Avenue and Norwich Drive, bringing it into dialogue with the Pacific Design Center’s abstract vernacular style and bold color schemes. 

Davis has worked with Pamela Burton & Co. to integrate the artwork into the design of the streetscape. The pedestrian foot path created for the streetscape features graphic patterned paving elements inspired by the West African textiles referenced by the artwork.

Karon Davis has a wide-ranging multimedia practice that encompasses installation, sculpture, film, photography and performance. Davis grew up the child of Broadway performers in New York City, trained at USC film school, and credits her late husband Noah Davis with teaching her much of her cross medium practice. Her work draws on elements of performance, theatricality, and mythology as it explores issues of humanity, survival, and ways of being. Davis is also the co-founder of The Underground Museum, a cultural hub and urban oasis located in Arlington Heights that serves low-to moderate income communities in Los Angeles and cultivates the hope that increasing access to art will inspire, educate, and transform lives.

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For questions, contact Marcus Mitchell, Public Art Administrator at (323) 848-3122 or mmitchell@weho.org. For people who are deaf or hard of hearing, please call, TTY: (323) 848-6496. To learn more information about the City of West Hollywood and its arts programs visit www.weho.org/arts.