In an art world characterized by transactional relationships, it can sometimes feel as though the demand for care arises from a moment of crisis rather than from a commitment to systemic change. In the conversation “Where is the Care?”, Dejha Carrington and Damien Davis will explore the processes through which care is rendered, interrogating the barriers and pathways that lead to a more interconnected and compassionate art environment. Carrington is the 2026–27 CBVC Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence and Co-Founder of Commissioner—a dynamic art program that runs on cooperative economics to fund artist commissions and collect art. Davis is a writer, educator, and artist whose current exhibition, “Hedges and Edges,” engages with identity, ritual, business, and community. Join us as we explore the structural frameworks fostering genuine support during these complicated times.

Dejha Carrington is an arts leader. In 2017, she co-founded Commissioner, a collaborative model and social practice that brings locals together to support contemporary artists and collect art in their cities. As Executive Director, she has cultivated a community of over 850 members to date, collectively funding more than 50 curated artist commissions in Miami, Detroit, Montréal, and Mexico City. From 2015 to 2022, she served as Vice President of Strategic Communications for YoungArts. She is CBVC’s 2026–27 Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence and teaches the Business of Art at New World School of the Arts at Miami-Dade College, dividing her time between Miami, Montréal, and New York.

Damien Davis is a Brooklyn-based artist and curator, born in Crowley, Louisiana and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. His practice explores historical representations of Blackness, unpacking the visual language of different cultures and questioning how those societies code and decode representations of race through craft, design, and digital modes of production. Using digital tools to shape layers of natural and synthetic materials, Davis composes stories through a lexicon of graphic figures and shapes that move between personal memory and chapters of human history, using color as both aesthetic and metaphor to create space for confronting bias and dehumanization in contemporary society. His work has appeared at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts and Design, The Whitney Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, as well as METHOD Gallery in Seattle and Biagiotti Progetto Arte in Italy. He holds a Master’s degree in Visual Arts Administration from NYU and is the recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Community Engagement Grant, with residencies at the Museum of Arts and Design, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and Pilchuck Glass School. Davis is a former fellow and current advisor for the Art & Law Program in New York City. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Frieze Magazine, The Guardian, Hyperallergic, and Vulture.