An American realist painter, Davis Cone is especially known for his photographs documenting brightly-neon lit art-deco theatre exteriors. He is part of the movement reclaiming realism as a strong part of American art.

Born in 1950 in Augusta, Georgia, Cone currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. He received a bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1972 from Mercer University in Macon, GA, and attended the University of Georgia in Athens, GA, doing postgraduate work in photography and design from 1972–73. He exhibited worldwide, including venues such as Forum gallery, NYC and Los Angeles, Miles McEnery Gallery, NYC, he Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA, and the Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN. His work is represented in private and public collections including The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA.; The Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.; The Martin Z. Margolies Collection, Miami, FL.; The Steven Spielberg Collection, Los Angeles, CA.; The Albert Family Trust, Mills, MA. among others.

Cone focuses on the Art Deco movie theaters of America, capturing these vintage establishments in cities and suburban settings at various hours, from a range of angles, and in different weather systems and lighting. His works aim to show the endurance of America’s movie culture and convey nostalgia for a bygone era. The artist uses his own photographs as a base for his paintings in which figures rarely appear.

Davis Cone

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