An amazing artist and human being, Noah Davis, passed away Saturday night. Noah and his wife Karon created the Underground Museum in Mid-City—a place for art, art books and art lovers to congregate. High-end curation in the hood. It’s free and open to the public—just the way he wanted it.

I met Noah last year when Mary Sweeney, chair of the board of Film Independent, curator Yael Lipshutz and I were on the hunt for an artist to create our poster for the 2015 LA Film Festival. After looking at his work online, Mary brought me to meet Noah, Karon and their lovely son, Moses, at the gallery space on Washington Blvd.

What struck me first was how warm and kind he was. I didn’t know that he had been recently diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and you certainly wouldn’t guess it. He had a big smile and an infectious laugh.

He showed us his work on the walls of the gallery—images of brown people in repose, walking up stairs, lounging. Some of the faces were blurred but the intent was always clear. There was an innate sense of integrity in all of his subjects and a soothing quality to his work that made me want to linger in front of his paintings.

The Festival art program had just begun a year earlier with Ed Ruscha’s reworking of his classic painting, Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights and we were looking for an emerging artist to commission a new work. Though Noah had pieces at LACMA and the Hammer, he was still emerging and we sat and talked and though I was supposed to meet other artists, I asked him in that first meeting if he could create our poster. And amazingly he said yes.

I’d never commissioned any art before so I blundered my way through describing what I thought it should capture—the glamour of L.A., the excitement of being in the dark with other people, the multicultural essence of L.A. He went away and came back with several studies based on our conversation. Mary and I sat as he showed us his work—audience faces lit by a screen, an Ionic column, a curtain—and then he pulled out LA Nights. A rendering of L.A. as seen from the Hollywood Hills at night with a pale full moon hanging in the sky. And I fell in love.

LA Nights captured everything we wanted to say about the Festival. We added graphics for the title and date and locked it months in advance. LA Nights graced all of our Festival material and the response was overwhelming. It elevated the Festival’s profile.

As the Festival approached, Noah’s illness progressed. I saw him a few times at the Underground Museum. Sometimes he could be hugged and other times he shied away from contact but he was always warm, funny and generous. I purchased one of his studies for the Festival poster as my first art acquisition and hung it on my office wall.

We decided to have our Festival Kickoff at the Underground Museum and we combined the celebration of selected filmmakers with an art auction—mainly in support of Noah and Karon. Hospital bills and his inability to work put an undo burden on them and they were struggling to keep the space open.

We didn’t know we were opening a floodgate of support. Artists from all over offered to donate pieces to auction off—Ed Ruscha, Mark Bradford, Henry Taylor and many more. And the centerpiece of the auction would be our commission of LA Nights.

LA Nights—as we called the kickoff—was so successful we had a line of people two blocks long trying to get in. David Alan Grier was our auctioneer. Devendra Banhart performed. It was the coolest, hippest, most multicultural event we’ve ever had at the Festival and, to date, the event I’m most proud of producing.

Noah leaves an amazing legacy of family, work, friends, loved ones and especially the Underground Museum, which now operates in collaboration with MOCA. If you haven’t been there, go see it. It revolutionizes the purpose of art in our community. It brings art to the people. For us. By us. Near us. About us.

Thank you, Noah, for your vision, your friendship, your laughter and your life. You will be missed but you will live on through your legacy. Please donate to the Underground Museum to keep his vision alive.

Stephanie Allain / LA Film Festival Director