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Lisa Corinne Davis Rediscovered artwork
A Feminine Day (Rediscovered Early Work) — Lisa Corinne Davis
In a remarkable and unlikely rediscovery, a group of early paintings by acclaimed contemporary artist Lisa Corinne Davis has resurfaced decades after the artist believed the works had disappeared forever.
The paintings — nine in total, including four signed and fully realized panels from a larger conceptual arrangement — were created during Davis’s undergraduate years, long before she became internationally recognized for her complex abstract and cartographic-inspired compositions. Until now, no publicly documented examples of this intensely figurative and emotionally charged period of her work were widely known.
The rediscovery began during the cleanout of a Baltimore home that had belonged to Davis’s late mother. After the property changed ownership, a contractor clearing the attic uncovered a group of rolled and hidden paintings tucked behind wood panels. Rather than discard them, the contractor passed them along to his daughter, who later listed them online with little information beyond a few photographs.
At first glance, the works appeared disconnected from Davis’s current abstract practice. Yet one viewer immediately recognized a striking artistic sophistication beneath the rough marketplace images: expressive brushwork, psychologically charged figures, and a cohesive visual language suggestive of late Neo-Expressionism.
What initially appeared online to be four paintings turned out to be a larger body of nine works. Four of the panels were signed and inscribed by Davis, each labeled as part of a unified series titled A Feminine Day. Handwritten directly onto the lower margins of the canvases were installation indicators such as “Upper Right,” along with notes referencing spacing between canvases — evidence that the paintings were conceived as a coordinated multi-panel work rather than isolated images.
The remaining five paintings, unsigned but stylistically consistent, were discovered rolled together on unstretched cloth canvas material, strongly suggesting they belonged to the same formative body of work.
After researching Davis’s career and finding no public references to this figurative period, the collector contacted the artist directly. Davis responded promptly and confirmed the paintings were authentic. In her correspondence, she explained that the works were created independently near the end of her undergraduate studies while students were developing their own projects, not as class assignments.
She further clarified that the attached image represented “one of four images” and expressed amazement that the paintings had survived at all, describing their reappearance as “such an odd journey.”
The rediscovered panels reveal a dramatically different side of Davis’s artistic evolution. Rendered with raw intensity and emotional immediacy, the works explore identity, bodily transformation, fragmentation, and psychological space through bold color and gestural form. Seen together, they provide an extraordinary glimpse into the developmental foundation of an artist who would later become celebrated for rigorous abstraction and structural precision.
Beyond their visual impact, the paintings carry substantial historical importance. They establish a previously undocumented transitional chapter in Davis’s career and illuminate the conceptual concerns that would later reemerge in abstract form throughout her mature practice.
The survival of the series — hidden for decades, unknowingly preserved, and ultimately recognized before being lost again — represents not only an important archival discovery, but also a rare instance in which an artist’s forgotten early voice returns intact to the historical record.
A Feminine Day (Four Signed Panels) of Nine
The four signed panels shown above are part of A Feminine Day, a multi-panel work by Lisa Corinne Davis. The panels bear installation notations including "Upper Right" and spacing instructions, indicating they were conceived as components of a unified arrangement. The four signed panels form part of a larger rediscovered group of nine early paintings
Lisa Corinne Davis Rediscovered artwork
A Feminine Day (Rediscovered Early Work) — Lisa Corinne Davis
In a remarkable and unlikely rediscovery, a group of early paintings by acclaimed contemporary artist Lisa Corinne Davis has resurfaced decades after the artist believed the works had disappeared forever.
The paintings — nine in total, including four signed and fully realized panels from a larger conceptual arrangement — were created during Davis’s undergraduate years, long before she became internationally recognized for her complex abstract and cartographic-inspired compositions. Until now, no publicly documented examples of this intensely figurative and emotionally charged period of her work were widely known.
The rediscovery began during the cleanout of a Baltimore home that had belonged to Davis’s late mother. After the property changed ownership, a contractor clearing the attic uncovered a group of rolled and hidden paintings tucked behind wood panels. Rather than discard them, the contractor passed them along to his daughter, who later listed them online with little information beyond a few photographs.
At first glance, the works appeared disconnected from Davis’s current abstract practice. Yet one viewer immediately recognized a striking artistic sophistication beneath the rough marketplace images: expressive brushwork, psychologically charged figures, and a cohesive visual language suggestive of late Neo-Expressionism.
What initially appeared online to be four paintings turned out to be a larger body of nine works. Four of the panels were signed and inscribed by Davis, each labeled as part of a unified series titled A Feminine Day. Handwritten directly onto the lower margins of the canvases were installation indicators such as “Upper Right,” along with notes referencing spacing between canvases — evidence that the paintings were conceived as a coordinated multi-panel work rather than isolated images.
The remaining five paintings, unsigned but stylistically consistent, were discovered rolled together on unstretched cloth canvas material, strongly suggesting they belonged to the same formative body of work.
After researching Davis’s career and finding no public references to this figurative period, the collector contacted the artist directly. Davis responded promptly and confirmed the paintings were authentic. In her correspondence, she explained that the works were created independently near the end of her undergraduate studies while students were developing their own projects, not as class assignments.
She further clarified that the attached image represented “one of four images” and expressed amazement that the paintings had survived at all, describing their reappearance as “such an odd journey.”
The rediscovered panels reveal a dramatically different side of Davis’s artistic evolution. Rendered with raw intensity and emotional immediacy, the works explore identity, bodily transformation, fragmentation, and psychological space through bold color and gestural form. Seen together, they provide an extraordinary glimpse into the developmental foundation of an artist who would later become celebrated for rigorous abstraction and structural precision.
Beyond their visual impact, the paintings carry substantial historical importance. They establish a previously undocumented transitional chapter in Davis’s career and illuminate the conceptual concerns that would later reemerge in abstract form throughout her mature practice.
The survival of the series — hidden for decades, unknowingly preserved, and ultimately recognized before being lost again — represents not only an important archival discovery, but also a rare instance in which an artist’s forgotten early voice returns intact to the historical record.
A Feminine Day (Four Signed Panels) of Nine
The four signed panels shown above are part of A Feminine Day, a multi-panel work by Lisa Corinne Davis. The panels bear installation notations including "Upper Right" and spacing instructions, indicating they were conceived as components of a unified arrangement. The four signed panels form part of a larger rediscovered group of nine early paintings