My practice explores historical representations of blackness by seeking to unpack the visual language of various cultures, questioning how these societies code/decode representations of race through craft, design and digital modes of production.
The last fourteen years of my practice have been focused on an in-depth and evolving investigation of the formal and political significance of lines and vectors, both on an American and trans-global context. I am interested in how lines can be used (both aesthetically and conceptually) to divide and connect ideas, while also having the potential to encircle and diagram even broader ones. The vector objects I create can be stored and later modified into infinite permutations, allowing me to move, scale and rotate objects without degrading the quality of that original object. I employ vectors to facilitate my investigation into representations of (seemingly) concrete ideas that can only be realized in base iconic forms.
About Damien Davis
Damien Davis (b. 1984) is a Brooklyn-based artist, born in Crowley, Louisiana and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. His practice explores historical representations of blackness by unpacking the visual language of various cultures, question how these societies code/decode representations of race through craft, design and digital modes of production. His work has appeared at The Whitney Museum and Museum of Modern Art, as well as METHOD Gallery in Seattle, and Biagiotti Progetto Arte in Italy. He is the recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Community Engagement Grant and has been awarded residencies with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and Pilchuck Glass School. Mr. Davis is also a former fellow and current adviser for the Art & Law Program in New York City. His work has been mentioned in the New York Times, Frieze Magazine, The Guardian, Hyperallergic and Vulture Magazine. Mr. Davis is currently an artist in residence at both the Museum of Arts and Design and the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling.
Mr. Davis holds a BFA in Studio Art and an MA in Visual Arts Administration from New York University.