His canvases depict everyday Black scenes and figures. He found inspiration in family photographs, conversations with friends, pop culture, and literary sources; blended abstraction and figuration; and admired both art historical figures like Marth Rothko and contemporaries like Kerry James Marshall.

In 2012, Davis founded the Underground Museum alongside his wife, Karon Davis, as not only an exhibition space, but also an environment for innovative community programming. The institution combined three derelict storefronts in the Arlington Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles—an area far from the city’s mainstream art scenes. The Museum, which closed in 2022, presented installations of Davis’s work, as well as that of artists such as Lorna Simpson and Deana Lawson. In 2015, however, just a few years after opening, Davis passed away from a rare cancer at the age of thirty-two.

Davis studied at the Cooper Union. His work is in the collections of numerous institutions, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art; and Whitney Museum of American Art. The Studio Museum has presented Davis’s work in exhibitions including Fore (2012–13); Black: Color, Material, Concept (2015–16); and 20/20: The Studio Museum and Carnegie Museum of Art (2017), presented at and in partnership with the Carnegie Museum of Art.