Alonzo J. Davis' career as an artist spans four decades. A native of Tuskegee, Alabama, Davis moved with his family to Los Angeles in his early teens. After acquiring an undergraduate degree at Pepperdine College he earned an MFA in Design at Otis Art Institute. Influenced early on by the assemblagists, Davis soon took wing and began to experiment with a variety of mediums, techniques and themes. Inspired by travel to Africa, the Caribbean and American Southwest-the colors and patterns of Pacific Rim cultures also seeped into Davis' artwork. During the '70's and early '80's, his involvement in the California mural movement culminated with the 1984 Olympic Murals project.

Davis entered new territory literally and figuratively when he moved from Los Angeles to Sacramento, California in '87. Fellowships in Hawaii and Texas inaugurated new bodies of work and led to job opportunities in academia--deanships at the San Antonio Art Institute and the Memphis College of Art. During this period his on-going Blanket Series of woven paintings-morphed into a series of installations: Christopher Columbus Did Not Discover America which incorporated light elements, rocks and arrows, and the Tar Paper Series, richly-textured organic forms that Davis "choreographed" onto large walls. These works signaled a transition from 2-D to 3-D and commissions to create public art for the Boston Subway, Atlanta International Airport, a shopping mall and new main library in Tennessee.

Bamboo insinuated its way into Davis' work about 15 years ago and he now has a number of series underway in this medium including Power Poles, Bamboo Constructions, and Sky Ladders. The American Bamboo Society presented him with the 2006 Award for Excellence in Using Bamboo for his bamboo construction, Judicial Balance, created for the Prince George's Maryland County Courthouse. A resident of Maryland for the past 10 years, Davis' works out of his studio at Montpelier Arts Center in Laurel. He continues to create for the public art sphere, most recently a wall installation for Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Chattanooga, Tennessee.