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Artist Statement:
www.dameon.co.uk
Dameon's paintings engage in a
series of narratives which
subtly weave their way through
the paintings: a visual
depiction of what can lie
beneath the surface; at times
in a seemingly
innocent image.
The stories they tell are
those which the viewer does
not necessarily want to know;
and yet forces them to fill in
that which is not always
apparent, resulting in the
uncomfortable
recognition of a disturbing
undertone.
With rare exceptions, his
stories end with disturbing
circumstances; as he captures
his subject's quiet
desperation, with full
emotional tension, anxiety and
melancholy. Portrayed
against everyday backdrops
where the drama unfolds.
The melancholic and often
underlying tragic images in
Dameon's work, are not faded
Polaroid’s of times past in an
album, but rather are still
vivid snapshots of a time
which, although not
dated, seem familiar and
recent, because of the
relevance in things unchanged.
His work lends itself to those
basics of old-fashioned
storytelling: plot, character,
and action.Combined with
traditional themes in art -
sex, politics and religion.
The culminating results within
the paintings are sometimes
both simultaneously beautiful
and haunting; or arresting in
their
strength.
Dameon sources literature;
both ...
Further Information
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Artist Exhibitions:
EXHIBITION HISTORY
Previous group exhibitions
2009
Florence Biennale,
Florence,Italy
'Figures', Lloyd Gill Gallery,
Western Super Mare
'Something Different', APW
Gallery, 48-18 Van Dam St.
Long Island City NYC
'Art on Record', APW Gallery
48-18 Van Dam St. Long Island
City NYC
2008
Toronto International Art Fair
2nd ...
Further Information
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Artist Galleries:
Coming Soon!
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Collections:
Coming Soon!
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Commissions:
Coming Soon!
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Reviews for Dameon Priestly:
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Hackney Gazette
Extra
Thursday 14 June 2007
'Bringing the America of the 1930s and 40s to life in Hackney from tonight is artist Dameon Priestly.
His new exhibition ‘Lady Luck’ celebrates a tainted side to the all-American dream as he focuses on convenience stops, diners, motels and other stop-off points frequented by truck drivers and runaways. As well as having definite retro appeal, his paintings condemn the disposable culture of the world's ‘super power’.
North London-based Priestly says his obsession with America started at a young age. “The fascination comes from when I was a child teaching myself to draw from American comic books” he told the Gazette. His passion was bolstered by extensive traveling in the US during which reality began to kick in.
“America has such a consumer-led society” he said. “I wanted to get the people behind this and show how their stories are just as disposable.” The exhibition also includes designs for Lady Luck a fictitious brand of chewing gum, the ultimate symbol of disposability....
'Lady Luck' runs at My Life in Art Gallery in Broadway Market
until Sunday 1 July.'
London Informer
Editorial
Friday 27 October, 2006
'You only need hear the title of Dameon Priestly’s latest exhibition to recognise it as a subversion of something supposedly innocent.
‘Malice in Wonderland’ looks deep into the psyche of America’s Midwest Bible-belt in the 1970s to reveal corruption and sexual abuse lurking beneath the surface of those fervant religious institutions.
The paintings juxtapose images of churches with those of scantily clad women, and includes religious phrases such as ‘Jesus Loves Me’ and ‘Confessional’ into the overall compositions.
Despite the exhibit's obvious religious connection, the female figure is the dominant image in each work.
Priestly tells his audience that it is she who draws the viewer in, not the church steeple or the scripture. The exhibition tears apart the images and ideals of Christianity and invokes memories of scandals involving infamous Catholic priests and Mormon polygamists. It represents, says Priestly, “how people can corrupt power under the name of religion and get away with things they wouldn't normally”.
More shocking than the images themselves are the stories that inspire them. John Taylor, an early leader of the Mormon Church reportedly told one of his 33 wives, age 14 at the time, that “God had commanded that she marry him or face eternal damnation”.
Flora Jessop, the daughter of a polygamist and member of The Church of the Latter Day Saints, reported “What goes on in that place is nothing less than sexual slavery.”
Through his art, Priestly strives to extract the truth behind the shield of religion and expose it to broad daylight where all can contemplate the corruption and irony.
‘Malice in Wonderland is at Jeffery West, Piccadilly Arcade, SW1,
until December 14, 2006.'
Nude Magazine
Issue 7 winter 2005
'Former 'Design and Illustration Irish Design graduate of the Year' Dameon Priestly will be exhibiting a series of paintings at Jeffery West in Piccadilly Arcade until January. 'Missing' is Priestly's exploration into the psyche of the minds of both adductors and abductees. He explains 'Murder is terrifyingly easy in America. You can kill a stranger, dump the body in a place where it will never be found and be 2,000 miles away before the murdered person is even missed. Every year in America approximately 5,000 murders go unsolved. That is an incredible number.
Missing as a collective is about a journey, both actual and metaphorical. The ‘actual’ is that of our protagonist (unseen)and his quest to charm and lure his prey to their ultimate and untimely demise.
Theirs is also an ‘actual’ journey, from the centre of their world (and yet the centre of nothing and nowhere), to a land of dreams and promises, that becomes a journey into the mind of darkness and their iconographic ‘resting’ places; a truck, a trailer, a railway carriage and a disused gas station.
The ‘metaphorical’ journey is that into the imaginary psyche of an intelligent and charming serial killer, disillusioned with the moral and social decay that is ‘back state’ USA and also driven by his attraction and the simultaneous revulsion of his victims. ‘You’re not in Walt Whitman’s Kansas anymore’.'
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