Artist CV | Art Gazette

Artist's statement

(b 1971GB. Lives and works in London)

Dan Coombs creates his composition studies from collage and paint, which unite the figures in his work with entirely invented surroundings, landscape dream worlds and interior spaces. These are human encounters seem charged with a mysterious, symbolic power. They are explorations of guilt, beauty and fear of isolation, that draw on myth, religion and psychoanalysis in order to try and grasp the real within the imaginary. The paintings have a formality of composition and balance that underpins the energy of their execution but remain deliberately left open to interpretation by the viewer. They are attempting to capture the essence of an emotional situation, to represent ideas or embody meanings. The figures have an uncanny ambiguity - they can be interpreted as emanations of the artist’s psyche, or as creatures in their own right – trapped within dreamlike, gestural landscapes of heightened colour.

Solo exhibitions

2020

“Unfolding Man “ Aleph Contemporary

2014: “Nudes” New Art Projects , London
2011: "Heaven and Earth" Fine Art Society, London
2009: “The Dreamers” Fred Gallery, London
2005: Mihai Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles; The Approach , London
2003: " Crepuscular Variations" Rockwell, London
2002: The Cornerhouse , Manchester
2001: The Approach , London; Habitat, London
2000: Zwemmer Gallery , London
1999: The Approach, London
1997: The Approach, London

Group exhibitions

2020: “The Just“ Aleph Contemporary; “ Cuts “ Matthiesen Gallery, London; “Glass Houses “, Mcbean's Orchid Nursery, East Sussex, UK
2019: “It’s Gonna Rain : Recent Landscape Painting” Watson Farley and Williams LLP , City of London
2018: “Context : Gallery Artists and Collaborators” Charlie Smith London; “The Bystander “ Standpoint Gallery , London; “Take A Little Walk to the Edge of Town and Cross the Tracks” Watson Farley and Williams LLP , City of London
2017: “The Good , The Bad and The Ugly “ Charlie Smith London”; “In this Soup We Swim “ Kingsgate projects , London
2016: Finalist in the “Contemporary British Painting Prize” Riverside Gallery , Richmond Museum; “Edgelands” Marylebone Crypt, APT London, Aberystwyth Art Gallery , Hartlepool Art Gallery, ARB Cambridge; “Steal the Show” 53 Bentinck Street , Glasgow

2015: “From Fly on the Wall , To Fly in My Soup” Galerie Dukan , Paris; “Anti Social Realism” Charlie Smith , London; “Distorted Realities” The Dot Project London

2013: “Delphine” Lion and Lamb , London; "Something Old , Something New " Fred Gallery London; "****" Neue Froth Kunsthalle, Brighton; "Dirty Pop " And Model , Leeds; "Masquerade: Be Another" Stephen Lawrence Gallery ,; Greenwich University; "A House of Many Windows" Collyer Bristow Gallery,; London; "Speak, Clown " Fold Gallery , London
2012: "Hair Of the Dog " Block 336 , London; London Art 12, City Museum , Prague; "Echoes" Fine Art Society London
2011: "The Beard" Charlie Smith Gallery , London; "Disputatio" Gooden Gallery, London; "The Perfect Crime" No.4a Gallery, Malvern .
2010: “What Have I Done” Fine Art Society , London; “The Future Can Wait”, Shoreditch Town Hall

2009: “We’re Moving” Royal College of Art, London; “Paperview” John Jones , London; “Collage” Fred Gallery, London

2008: "Her House" , Her House Gallery , London

2007: "Metropolis Rise: New Art from London; ", British Council, Shanghai and Beijing; "New Purchases", V22 Collection,London; "Viva Curandos",Mihai Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles
2006: "Mimoid" Limehouse Arts Foundation, London
2005: "Wonder and Think", Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, London; "Babel" , Limehouse Arts Foundation
2004: Le Consortium , Dijon, France; "The Waiting Room", The Nunnery, London; "But Not As We Know It" , Mihai Nicodim Gallery , Los Angeles; "Collage", Bloomberg Space , London
2003: Lyon Biennale, France; APT, London; "Isonerv" , 168 Pitfield St, London; "The Lost Collection of An Invisible Man", Laing Gallery, Newcastle; "Dirty Pictures", The Approach, London
2001: "Gate 13", Spitalfields, London
2000: "British Art Now" , Diehl Vorderwuelbecke, Berlin; "Sporadinate", Lock-Up Gallery,London; "Raumerhebung", The Nunnery, London
1999: " Six Minutes, Three Seconds" , Tulkammaren, Sweden
1998: "Paradigms of Oneirology ", One in the Other, London; Whitechapel Open , Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
1996: " Young British Artists Part Six", Saatchi Gallery , London; " The Alchemy of the Portrait", Hotel de la Monnaie, Paris; " The Death of the Death of Painting", Wooster St, New York

Awards & residencies

2007: Nomination for Hamlyn Award
2004: Mark Rothko Foundation Travel Award
1994-95: Rome Scholar in Painting, British; School in Rome

Press & publications

2012: "Making Contemporary Sculpture" Ian; Dawson, Crowood Press
2003: "Avant " and "Apres", Lyon Biennale
2000: " Young British Art: The Saatchi Decade" Booth Clibborn Editions; " The Saatchi Gift" Arts Council of Great Britain; 1998 "The New Neurotic Realism" Saatchi Gallery

Teaching

2018: - present Senior Tutor in Painting , University of East London; The Essential School of Painting , London
2015-17: Visiting Lecturer , Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD- Geneve)
2016-17: Visiting Lecturer , University of East London
2005- 2015: Visiting Lecturer Wimbledon School of Art, Painting Department
2012: Founder of Turps Banana Art School
2012- 2018: Mentor at Turps Banana Art School
2012- 2015: Slade School of Art BA; Slade School of Art MA; Leeds University, Fine Art Department; Chelsea College of Art; Goldsmiths College; University of East London
2007 - 08: Visiting Lecturer , Winchester School of Art; Royal Academy Schools
2001- 07: 0.66 Tutor in Painting , The Ruskin School, Oxford University
1996- 2001: Reading University,; Department of Fine Art , Loughborough University; Royal College of Art, Painting Department; Goldsmiths College; Postgraduate Architecture School, Cambridge University

Education

1989-1992: B.A. Ruskin School , Oxford University
1992-1994: M.A. Painting , Royal College of Art
1994-95: Rome Scholar in Painting, British; School in Rome