‘Curtain Call’ Sculpture by Karon Davis to Debut at Segerstrom Hall
- Kaitlin Wright
- Oct 1
- 4 min read
The bronze ballerina joins the visual art found across Segerstrom Center’s campus, on view all season.
Segerstrom Center for the Arts will unveil “Curtain Call,” a bronze sculpture by visual artist Karon Davis, on Oct. 2 in Segerstrom Hall. The public unveiling coincides with the opening night of San Francisco Ballet’s “Frankenstein” and marks the first time Orange County audiences will encounter the piece.
On loan from Salon 94 in New York for the 2025–26 season, the larger-than-life sculpture depicts a ballerina bowing at the end of a performance, bouquet in hand, a gesture of exhaustion, triumph and reverence.
A Bow That Speaks Volumes
Davis, who trained in dance before turning to sculpture, said the image of a dancer’s final bow embodies a lifetime of work.
“Performers dedicate their lives to that moment when they step foot on the stage. All the sacrifice, sweat, injuries, money, hours of training and rehearsals culminate there,” Davis wrote in an email. “‘Curtain Call’ represents the victory and satisfaction felt after one shares their art with the world. It’s a bit like giving birth.”
For Davis, the piece draws on personal and cultural history. Part of her “Beauty Must Suffer” series, the work examines the physical and emotional labor behind the pursuit of beauty in ballet, particularly for Black dancers working in Eurocentric traditions. Her mother was a ballerina, her sister an aspiring dancer and her father is the celebrated actor and performer Ben Vereen.
“This sculpture is where she needs to be … with the performers,” Davis said of the piece being on display inside Segerstrom Hall. “I am honored she is in a space for performing arts. I hope the artists can see themselves in her and see all they have worked hard for to get to that bow.”
PHOTO 1: Karon Davis' “Curtain Call” on the lawn at 23rd Street on the High Line in New York, where it was on display from December 2023 to November 2024. PHOTO 2: The sculpture was included as a part of a bigger installation called "Beauty Must Suffer" at Salon 94 in New York in the fall of 2023. Images courtesy of Segerstrom Center for the Arts
A Natural Fit for Segerstrom’s Art Legacy
Although the unveiling is new, the presence of significant art on the Segerstrom campus is not. From its inception, developer and arts visionary Henry Segerstrom envisioned the arts plaza as a holistic cultural space where sculpture, landscape and architecture would converse with the performing arts.
Among the landmark works Henry Segerstrom commissioned are Richard Lippold’s soaring aluminum and stainless steel “Fire Bird” inside/outside Segerstrom Hall, Richard Serra’s 65-foot weathered steel “Connector” on the plaza and Henry Moore’s bronze “Reclining Figure” (1981), which anchors the Arts Plaza just steps from the hall. Nearby, Isamu Noguchi’s “California Scenario,” completed in 1982, unfolds a block away as a sculpture garden symbolizing the state’s geography and spirit. Altogether, these works extend the campus’s reputation as a destination for public art as well as performance.
“Henry Segerstrom’s vision called for integration of all the arts,” said Limor Tomer, the center’s vice president of programming and production. “‘Curtain Call’ is very much a natural companion to that collection.”
Placement with Purpose
The new sculpture will occupy a second-tier position in Segerstrom Hall, near Lippold's “Fire Bird.” Tomer said the placement was carefully chosen both for visibility and protection.
“She has a commanding spot, a highlighted spot, but also one that keeps her safe and dignified,” Tomer said. “I loved her proximity to the ‘Fire Bird.’ She’s kind of being held in its wings.”
The choice reflects Tomer’s broader approach since joining Segerstrom in January. Formerly head of Live Arts at The Met in New York, she has emphasized cross-disciplinary curation and experiences that dissolve boundaries between performance, visual art and community events.
“I feel like Segerstrom Center for the Arts is an extraordinary and unique place,” Tomer said. “It’s a cultural icon, a living, breathing organism wrapping its arms around Orange County. Whether it’s sculpture, a festival in the plaza or a performance in one of our halls, it all adds up to more than the sum of the parts.”
About the Artist
Born in Reno in 1977, Davis is known for large-scale figurative sculptures that blend theater, memory and mythology. She often casts live models in plaster or bronze, capturing gestures that freeze ephemeral moments of performance into permanence.
She also grew up surrounded by performance. Her father is Tony Award-winning actor and dancer Vereen, and her late mother, Nancy Bruner Davis, was a ballerina. Her sister trained in dance as well. As the wall text for “Curtain Call” notes, Davis recalls: “The minute I was born, I was handed tap shoes, ballet shoes.”
For “Curtain Call,” Davis worked with dancer Jasmine Perry of Miami City Ballet, whose body was cast in the pose of a final bow. The result is both monumental and intimate: larger than life yet close to human scale, inviting empathy and recognition.
The piece was first shown in New York and now comes to Orange County for a season-long presentation. For Davis, the placement within a performing arts center rather than a gallery shifts its resonance.
San Francisco Ballet’s Joseph Walsh and Lauren Strongin, entrusted with Liam Scarlett’s choreographic legacy, lead the revival of his “Frankenstein” ahead of its Southern California debut on Oct. 2.
An Unfolding Story
Whether “Curtain Call” remains on long-term view or is eventually acquired for the permanent collection remains to be seen. For now, its unveiling underscores the ongoing evolution of the Segerstrom campus as both a stage and a gallery.
For audiences arriving Oct. 2, the evening will bring more than one performance. Alongside San Francisco Ballet’s dancers, Davis’s bronze ballerina will make her Orange County debut – a silent bow that speaks to the endurance, sacrifice and joy at the heart of performance itself.
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