Carlton Davis: Humble Beauty
Solo Photography Exhibition
On View Saturday and Sunday 1-5pm through June 29
FINAL TWO WEEKENDS!
Carlton Davis In Conversation with Amelia Toelke: Sunday, June 22 at 2pm in the LABspace courtyard
Closing Party with Carlton Davis: Sunday June 29th, 1-5pm
Full exhibition checklist
Amelia Toelke is a visual artist whose work is rooted in the history of adornment, decoration, and material culture. An interest in public art and collaboration, and the teaching process, guides and informs her multidisciplinary practice. Toelke has taught and led workshops at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Metal Works, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Peters Valley School of Craft, Penland School of Craft, and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at SUNY New Paltz. She lives in her hometown, Chatham NY.
With this selection of photographs, Carlton Davis features seemingly mundane grocery items such as fruit, botanicals, eggs, and chickens. With a focus on composition and mood, Davis elevates these humble subjects and encourages contemplation of the photographs individually, and in conversation with one another. Through these images, Davis inconspicuously explores concepts of power, diversity, beauty, and equanimity.
Carlton Davis (b. Philadelphia) is a New York-based photographer known for his ability to uncover extraordinary beauty in the ordinary. His work, spanning both commercial and personal creative practices, highlights the essential and often overlooked elements of his subjects, inviting viewers to slow down and see the world anew. In his art practice, Davis focuses on the richness of the quotidian world. The depth and complexity of humble subjects are revealed through Davis’ rigorous attention to composition and light. Davis employs the same approach in portraiture. Intentionally simple backdrops and minimal to no color allow Davis to pare down distractions and create images that offer viewers space for thoughtful focus, visual exploration, and contemplation. Davis’ photography transforms the familiar into something timeless, encouraging a quiet, deliberate appreciation for objects and moments that sustain us.
Carlton Davis writes:
The botanical images included in ‘Humble Beauty,’ my solo exhibition at LABspace May 3rd-June 29th 2025, are part of a series inspired by the oil paintings of Charles Ethan Porter (b. Hartford, CT 1847- 1923). Reimagining Porter’s work offers me a vehicle to explore ideas of imperfection, the passage of time and the effects of aging. I convey the beauty and elegance of these themes through the depiction of fruits and flowers. To make a visual connection between our bodies of work, I chose to restage a selection of Porter’s paintings. However, many of the photographs are entirely my own design. For these works, Porter’s images are only source material used to explore my own contemporary aesthetic.
Porter’s influence is significant not only because we share the same hometown, but more importantly because we are both African American artists working in still life. Similarities in our professional trajectories provided the crucial point of departure that sparked this project.
