Hard Line Fade
Charlie James Gallery is delighted to present Hard Line Fade, New York-based artist Damien Davis’s first solo show with the gallery, opening October 24th and running thru November 28th, 2020.
The work of NY-based artist Damien Davis (b. 1984) explores historical representations of Blackness, seeking to unpack the visual language of cultures and investigate how society codes, decodes, and recodes representations of race through craft, design and digital modes of production. Composed of glyphic shapes, patterns, and images, the works interact in prismatic ways, creating ever-shifting relationships to meaning, brokering new associations and conversations about how identity is performed in culture.
Hard Line Fade is itself a phrase of interwoven terms originating out of brown and black culture, specifically hair salons. ‘”Fade” itself references a hairstyle typified by a tight taper of the hair towards the ear, progressing from below a “hard line,” or deep part line. “To fade” has an older meaning as well, meaning to punish, beat, or conquer another, as in “Catch my fade.” For this show, Davis presents a new collection of works across varieties of scale from his Blackamoors Collages series, pieces in which base patterns of carefully inlaid laser-cut acrylic activate a superimposed level of laser-cut figures of significant cultural weight, composed again of acrylic, connected by a variety of metallic screws, bolts, and nuts. The aesthetic of these new works conflates the pattern language of African textiles with the visual language of race as expressed in contemporary American political culture. The Blackamoors Collages series began for Davis as an investigation into the ornamental Blackamoor sculptures ubiquitous throughout Italy from the 17th century forward, in which African males are depicted in subservient or exoticized form. Originally accomplished through the use of shapes like candelabras, cowrie shells, and oversized lips, over time the series has expanded to incorporate iconography from contemporary culture and political discourse. This is Davis’s first show in Los Angeles and his first with Charlie James Gallery.
Damien Davis (b. 1984), holds a BFA in Studio Art and an MA in Visual Arts Administration from New York University. His works have appeared at The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY and various galleries across the country. He is the recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Community Engagement Grant and has been awarded residencies with Triangle Arts Association, the Museum of Arts and Design, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Pilchuck Glass School and Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling. Davis is currently an artist in residence at Dieu Donné Paper Mill in Brooklyn, NY. He is also a former fellow and current advisor for the Art & Law Program in New York. Davis lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Selected Works
Installation
