Davina Semo

Currently

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

2024

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2019

2018

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2016

2015

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2012

2011

Group exhibitions

2024

2023

The Sky's The Limit

October 21, 2023 – February 25, 2024

The contemporary sculptures in this exhibition dangle from the ceiling, cascade down walls, and extend far beyond their footprint on the gallery floor. Process-focused sculptures were pioneered by women creators in the mid-20th century, and they continually expand and redefine this medium.

Through the postwar years, curators and critics routinely ignored or minimized women’s innovations in sculpture, which included handwork, repetition, and unconventional materials. Today, scale and a focus on materiality are two techniques that sculptors use to achieve maximum impact. Monumentality expresses an artistic freedom for many makers. Artworks on view feature an array of found objects with strong cultural associations, including silver-plated vessels, hair combs, faux flowers, ostrich eggs, and parasols. Other works on view are composed from aluminum, blown glass, wool, paper, wire, and cedar wood.

Recent acquisitions and never-before-exhibited works by Sonya Clark, Beatriz Milhazes, Cornelia Parker, Mariah Robertson, Shinique Smith, and Joana Vasconcelos form the core of the exhibition. Several NMWA collection artists: Petah Coyne, Alison Saar, Davina Semo, Ursula von Rydingsvard, and Yuriko Yamaguchi, made available new works from their studios and connected the museum to private collections holding their art. Works by artists Rina Banerjee and Johanna Unzueta are on view at NMWA for the first time in The Sky’s the Limit.

From its opening in 1987, NMWA committed to collecting and exhibiting visionary sculpture by women. As the museum prepares to open the doors of its revitalized building, this exhibition expresses the museum’s dedication to illuminating artists’ illimitable impact and influence.

This Long Century: Beginners

September 1, 2023 – November 30, 2023

Anna Sew Hoy, Davina Semo, Haris Epaminonda, Jumana Emil Abboud, Lotus Laurie Kang, Maren Hassinger, Margaret Salmon, Mark McKnight, Mary Manning, Matt Connors, Matt Paweski, Monique Mouton, Nancy Shaver, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Raha Raissnia, Ricky Swallow, Sam Falls, Sarah Zapata, Sue De Beer, Troy Montes Michie, Wilder Alison

This Long Century: Beginners presents a group show of early work by twenty artists, on view at Dunes from September 1st through November 30th, 2023. The exhibition brings together paintings, sculptures, photographs and films, by artists who have previously contributed to the long-running, online archive This Long Century, in celebration of the website’s 15th anniversary. The exhibition draws on an early period of shared artistic development, when ideas are tested and themes explored, some of which will be embraced and others discarded. As the first physical manifestation of This Long Century, the work on view emerges from a diverse cross-pollination of interests, while also providing a deeper understanding of each artists’ contribution to the website itself.

““As we hit the 15th year of This Long Century I found myself looking back through the archive—at the wide range of ephemera, sketchbooks, and personal reflections—thinking not only about where we started, but also what each contributor was making during their early years. I love beginnings, before anything makes sense. As beginners we are nonexperts; we’re on the outside, making mistakes, relying on intuition to find our way through a cosmology of raw energy, accidents, and imprecise thoughts. For me, This Long Century has always been less of a definitive statement and more of a jumping-off point, one that is both unmediated and free of hierarchical distinctions. As we step lightly into the physical world, with our first exhibition, I hope we can retain some of that elasticity.”.”

  • Jason Evans, Founder of This Long Century

2022

2021

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2013

2012

B-Out

July 5, 2012 – August 18, 2012

DAVID B. ABBOTT, JOSHUA ABELOW, HACKWORTH ASHLEY, ERICA BAUM, GINA BEAVERS, BARTON LIDICÉ BENEŠ, HEATHER BENJAMIN, ROBERT BITTENBENDER, CHRIS BOGIA, TRAVIS BOYER, JOE BRAINARD, ELIJAH BURGHER, BENJAMIN BUTLER, MELISSA BROWN, KATHE BURKHART, A.K. BURNS, TOVA CARLIN, GEOFF CHADSEY, CRISTINA COVUCCI, CODY CRITCHELOE, JEFF DAVIS, T.M. DAVY, LUCKY DEBELLEVUE, NANCY DE HOLL, JIMMY DESANA, LORENZO DE LOS ANGELES, DAVID DUPUIS, JACK EARLY, ANNE EASTMAN, NICOLE EISENMAN, ARNOLD FERN, JACK FERVER, JOHN FIREMAN, GLEN FOGEL, EVE FOWLER, FCKNLZ, PETER GALLO, SAM GORDON, JONAH GROENEBOER, ANNE HALL, MATTHIAS HAMANN, ERIK HANSON, K8 HARDY, MAYA HAYUK, TOM HOLMES, KATHERINE HUBBARD, TIMOTHY HULL, CHRISTINE HOU, XYLOR JANE, RAY JOHNSON, ALEXANDER JOVANOVICH, JANE KAPLOWITZ, KEEHNAN KONYHA, THOMAS LANIGAN-SCHMIDT, CARY LEIBOWITZ/CANDYASS, DANI LEVENTHAL, MARC LIDA, LEE LOZANO, RYAN LUCERO, MICHAEL MAHALCHICK, HUG & MAGNAN, LEE MAIDA, JOE MAMA-NITZBERG, YENI MAO, KEITH MAYERSON, ROBERT MELEE, BILLY MILLER, BOB MIZER, PIERRE MOLINIER, MARK MORRISROE, CARRIE MOYER, CHUCK NANNEY, FANTASTIC NOBODIES, MEL ODOM, JEANINE OLESON, ALICE O'MALLEY, JOHN O'REILLY, MICKI PELLERANO, SHEILA PEPE, JACK PIERSON, CARLO PITTORE, BERN PORTER, ADAM PUTNAM, HUNTER REYNOLDS, BILL RICE, EM ROONEY, MARCOS ROSALES, ALAN RUIZ, BORNA SAMMAK, DESI SANTIAGO, JOSHUA SEIDNER, DAVINA SEMO, PAUL MPAGI SEPUYA, ERIC SHAW, CELESTE DUPUY-SPENCER, MARC SWANSON, TABBOO!, RICHARD TINKLER, NICKOLAUS TYPALDOS, ANTONIO URDIALES a.k.a. ijĒŞǙŞ ҚĦŖİŞŢ, EUGENE VON BRUENCHENHEIN, JONATHAN WEINBERG, MAY WILSON, DAVID WOJNAROWICZ, MARTIN WONG, GRANT WORTH, CHRISTIAN XATREC
curated by Scott Hug
Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York

2011

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About

Davina Semo (b. 1981, Washington DC) has a BA in Visual Arts and Creative Writing from Brown University and an MFA from University of California, San Diego. In 2021, the artist’s work was exhibited at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 1 in the solo installation Reverberation commissioned by Public Art Fund. Semo recently enjoyed the solo show Core Reflections at the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, wherein the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Forrest Gander composed poetry and critical reflections to accompany the artist’s new sculpture. Her work shows nationally and internationally. Semo has exhibited in prominent group exhibitions at San Francisco Arts Commission; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco; SOMArts, San Francisco; and Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles. Her work was recently in the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive’s “New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century,” a major survey exploring recent feminist practices in contemporary art. Semo lives and works in Los Angeles. She is represented by Jessica Silverman, San Francisco.