~DAMIAN STAMER . . SUNDAYS / OPENING PIX
DAMIAN STAMER . . ‘SUNDAYS’
opened last nite, NOV 21, 2013
the show runs thru JAN 4, 2013
FREIGHT+VOLUME – 530 WEST 24 ST, CHELSEA. NYC.
DAMIAN STAMER, on the way to his show.
DAMIAN STAMER, left . . with his twin bro, DYLAN.
Dylan Stamer is in finance, so that’s a nice . . split !!
DAMIAN ‘splits’ his time between North Carolina, and a studio here in Brooklyn, on the edge of McCarren Park.
ALI IVES, with DAMIAN STAMER.
they are friends from North Carolina, UNC/University of North Carolina . . where they both studied.
his painting, ‘Patrick Rd.’, 2013. is behind them.
DAMIAN recently graduated from the M.F.A. program at Chapel Hill, UNC, and has received numerous prestigious awards, among them, a Fulbright Grant and a Jacob Javits Fellowship. He exhibits his work extensively in the U.S. and abroad, and notably has a solo show upcoming at Galerie Michael Schultz in Berlin, this March 2014.
ALI, has recently moved to New York . . where she is a writer on global and local NYC fashion for REFINERY 29, she has already filed over 160 posts.
DAMIAN STAMER, ‘Patrick Rd.’ 2013. oil on panel, 48 x 72 in.
ghostly and yet oddly assertive .. it was Damian’s work, that had everybody mesmerized.
detail, DAMAN STAMER, ‘Patrick Rd.’
his work is full of contradiction. the compositional ‘chaos’ and ‘expressionism’ is held in check by an eerie yet architecturally correct, and historical record. all the work is monotone, yet speaks to reality and landscape. some of the work is very ghostly, just traces merging with the background, while others are very graphic, with higher tonal contrasts.
it’s new and old. it speaks to old dreams and the relentlessness of time passing. perhaps most strange is to experience the ‘depth’ of the pictorial narrative .. which possesses his subjects, the degrading yet forever sweet and charming old Southern structures which is contrastingly rendered . . physically, on a very very shallow surface.
esp for oil paint !!
he uses some kind of thinning medium, that renders his paint very very thin, in fact a kind of ‘wash’. this thinly applied technique ‘sweeps’ in turn across a masonite panel, which is in turn framed, and held firm by wood supports, in the back.
a few of the paintings also have very audacious, yet somehow very ‘merged’ . . formal divisions.
DAMIAN STAMER, ‘New Sharon Church Rd.4’, 2013. oil on panel. 48 x 72 in. (diptych).
($14,000)
detail, DAMIAN STAMER, ‘New Sharon Church Rd. 4’.
DAMIAN STAMER, ‘Toler’, 2013. oil on panel. 48 x 72 in.
($14,000)
big sky. small landscape. ‘expressionistic’ . . all over.
DAMIAN STAMER, ‘New Sharon Church Rd., 5’, 2013. oil on panel. 72 x 96 in.
($24,000)
cloud masses . . and linear divisions, contrast. and, yet . . it works.
in the back room, or 3rd room . .
DAMIAN STAMER, ‘Patrick Rd. 5’, 2012. oil on panel. 36 x 48 in.
($7,500)
one of my favorites.
I think it was the high bridge (?) running along the top, that caught my attention over and over again.
it was beautifully rendered, just exactly between here, and .. NOT.
it also had a nice Japanese woodblock feel.
detail, DAMIAN STAMER, ‘Patrick Rd. 5’.
a really dense play of the abstract and the graphic .. all merging on a very shallow ‘stage’.
NICK LAWRENCE, catches the ‘rays’ aka . . the ‘ambiance’ of the work.
behind him:
DAMIAN STAMER, ‘Patrick Rd. 4’, 2013. oil on panel, 48 x 72 in.
this photo catches the soft interplay of ‘light’ and a kind of fragile dark at work in these monotone renderings.
a ‘romantic’, gentle rendering of chaos and detail, erosion and .. yet, ‘still’ standing.
talking about, ‘rays’, this is a man who knows how to party !!
FREIGHT+VOLUME will be exhibiting work by gallery artists . . in 4 different venues at the upcoming MIAMI BASEL WEEKEND.
check the F+V website, or gallery for details.
speaking about . .
the BROOKLYN COMICS & GRAPHICS FESTIVAL, VICTOR KERLOW . . outside on the street, at the FREIGHT+VOLUME DAMIAN STAMER opening, had a wonderful table . . at the 2011 BC&GF.
MOST DEFINITE, check out: VICTOR KERLOW . . ‘SOMETHING BIG’.
he was with his pal, JASON POLAN, who has a show coming up next month, at Collette . . in PARIS.
MORE PIX FROM THE OPENING – TO POST EARLY NEXT WEEK.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH