Damien Flood

Damien Flood’s paintings stem from an interest in early writings on philosophy, theology, alchemy and the natural sciences. He uses these as starting points to explore the mutability of reality and language. The paintings he creates balance somewhere between landscape and figuration. They are psychological portraits and maps to different worlds. Flood is interested in creating a duality in his imagery, exploring how one image can contain multiple meanings and readings. Most recently Flood has begun making cermic works in the form of figures and vases. They expand on his interest in how we see and read the world, sometimes in a more direct and humourous way.

A primary concern in Flood’s paintings is how we see and read the world around us. Using a gestural and intuitive line, he creates images that relay his experience of the places he visits and the people he meets. The influences in Flood’s paintings are wide, ranging from collecting oral histories of small coastal towns to research trips to deserts in Dubai and Sharjah. During these periods of research he leaves himself open to the experiences that present themselves, allowing one meeting to lead to another.

The people and cultures Flood encounters are only tentatively documented through drawing and audio recordings. In the studio an almost archaeological process occurs, intuitively painting and allowing different themes and motifs to arrive naturally on the canvas. The titles of each work, usually a one word title, act as a guide for the viewer. They can be read as a key to his thinking behind the work, and the research that brought him there. The titles themselves can often have dual meanings, opening up the reading of the work even further.

Flood’s paintings create a re-imaging of the world by merging the stories, experiences and memories through the medium of paint. Puzzles, mysteries and questions are presented, through a mixing of different languages and view points, to create a place for meditative reflection. The images Flood produces mix the universal and the personal, the grand and the absurd. They try to communicate something that escapes written word; something that is experienced and felt.

Damien graduated from the MA in Fine Art, NCAD in 2008. He immediately was selected to exhibit in the John Moores contemporary painting exhibition in Liverpool followed by the Saatchi Space in London during Frieze ’08.

Since then he has been in numerious group exhibitions including Known Unknowns, Limerick City Gallery, Wouldn’t it be nice if we could dream together? Diane Rosenstein Gallery, LA (both 2017), The Studio Chronicles at RH Contemporary, New York (2015), Product Recall, Galway Arts Centre, Galway (2015), NGORONGORO, Lehder Strasse 34, Berlin (2015), Cú Chulainn Comforted, Basic Space, Dublin (2015), Promise of Palm Trees, Breese Little, London, (2015), Pull Bite Rally, NCAD Gallery, Dublin (2014). Renew, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin (2014,) Was Uns Trend, Glue, Berlin (2014). In 2013, he exhibited in the group exhibition Island: New Art From Ireland in Galleria Civica diModena, Italy; in the three-person show Flood/NiBhriain/Vari at DOMOBAAL, London; and the group show Cafe Paridiso (Least common denominator, or Rustenschacher) at M1, Hohenlockstedt, Germany. In 2012, he was part of the group show Making Familiar at Temple Bar Gallery, Crystalline at Millennium Court Arts Centre and Last at Douglas Hyde Gallery. He has been selected for the John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize in 2008 and 2010. In 2014 he was the recipient of the Elizabeth Fitzpatrick Travel Bursary administered by the Royal Hibernian Academy and in 2015 was awrded the DLR Lexicon 2016 Commsision. Most recently Flood was awarded the Eigse Hotron Award 2017.

After receiving the Royal Hibernian Academy's Elizabeth Fitzpatrick Travel Bursary in 2014 Damien undertook a research trip to Dubai which has resulted in the solo exhibition Infinite Plane at Gray Noise in Dubai (2015). The work exhibited explores the juxtaposition of the newly built landscape with the surrounding historical sites.

Other solo exhibitions include Theory of Two Centres, Stephane Simoens, Knokke (2017), Carrion Flowers, The Cabin, LA (2017), Terra Incognita, DLR Lexicon (2016), Interior Sun, Green On Red Gallery (2014), Theatre of the World, Ormston House, Limerick (2012), History of the Visitation, Green On Red Gallery (2011), Counter Earth, Green On Red Gallery (2010). In 2011 he was shortlisted for the Focus Abengoa Painting Prize in Seville, Spain. In 2012 Damien was selected to participate in the Marmite Painting Prize. The exhibition travelled to five UK venues, the Central Art Gallery, Tameside, the Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow, the Ruskin Gallery,

Publications include: The Figure in the Carpet, 2018 Theory of Two Centres, 2017, Afterworlds, 2013, Spectral Gallery, 2011, Selected Works, 2010.Cambridge, The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art and Tannery Arts, London.

Damien continues to live and work in Dublin.