Kat Davis
Artist Statement
Central to much of my practice is a sense of searching. I sift through old, found photographs, lingering on the anonymous faces and the small, everyday moments they capture—a hand reaching for another, the quiet act of braiding hair–drawn into the tension of what’s lost to time and what remains. Through layering, obscuring, and recombining found images, I create works that feel like memories just out of reach, both familiar and mysterious.
Photography has always been a tool of preservation, but also a tool of revision. The goal of my work is to challenge the idea of photography as fact and investigate how memories are restructured through emotion and nostalgia. It is an exploration of memory, home, and identity, shaped by my experiences as a mixed-race and nonbinary artist. By working with found images, I also open space for viewers to bring their own interpretations, emotions, and histories to the work. I want them to ask: Whose memories are we seeing? What stories do we impose on them? And how do images shape what we believe about ourselves?
Bio
Kat Davis is a Phoenix-based visual artist working in lens-based media, collage, and assemblage. Their work explores themes of memory, home, and identity, often through the use of found photographs and mixed media. As a mixed-race and nonbinary artist, they are drawn to the spaces in between—between personal and collective history, presence and absence, reality and longing.