Drawing loosely upon a tradition of contemporary mystical realism, Dominic Chambers (b. 1993, St. Louis, MO; based in New Haven, CT) creates paintings that immediately reference literary narratives cited in books, various mythologies and Black history, both in its oral tradition and written account. His current practice is invested in exploring Black introspection, the Black body, and the construction of lived Black experiences, as seen through moments of quiet contemplation and meditation, reading, leisure, and camaraderie between friends. An avid reader since childhood, literature and the dialectics of language continues to play a major role in both his life and work. In his psychological figurative paintings, Chambers builds a relationship between history, painting, and the imagination to center his respective ideas of where and how to find joy through respite, one that is both real and longed for.
Chambers received his BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 2016 and later, his MFA from the Yale University School of Art in 2019, where he studied painting. He has exhibited both in The United States and internationally, including Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK; MIAD Contemporary Gallery, Milwaukee, WI; and the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Pittsburgh, PA. He has also participated in a number of residencies including the prestigious Yale Norfolk Summer residency in New Haven, CT and the New York Studio Residency Program in Brooklyn, NY.
Dominic Chambers
Finding a Peace of Mind, 2021
Oil on linen
40 x 35 in (101.6 x 88.9 cm)
Dominic Chambers
Blue DayDream (Shikeith in Blue), 2021
Oil and spray paint on linen
72 x 60 in (182.9 x 152.4 cm)
Dominic Chambers
Untitled (Gabriel Study), 2021
Oil on linen
20 x 16 in (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Dominic Chambers
Dark Skin of Summer Shade, 2020
Oil on canvas
70 x 77 in (177.8 x 195.58 cm)
Dominic Chambers
After Albers (Max), 2020
Oil on linen
60 x 60 in (152.4 x 152.4 cm)
Dominic Chambers
Tajh by the Waters, 2019
Oil on canvas
60 x 72 in (152.4 x 182.88 cm)
Dominic Chambers
Well, Well, Well (Chiffon in Green), 2020
Oil and spray paint on linen
72 x 60 in (182.88 x 152.4 cm)
Dominic Chambers
Understanding the Sky, 2020
Oil on linen
62 x 77 in (157.5 x 195.6 cm)
Dominic Chambers
After Albers (Trevon), 2020
Oil on canvas
56 x 56 in (142.24 x 142.24 cm)
Dominic Chambers walks us through Like the Shape of Clouds on Water, his exhibition of paintings currently on view at The August Wilson African American Culture Center, Pittsburgh, PA (September 18 – December 13, 2020).
Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Tephra ICA) presents What Makes the Earth Shake featuring works by proliferate, figurative painter Dominic Chambers. This is the first solo exhibition of the artist’s work in the Washington, DC metropolitan region.
There’s Light: Artworks & Conversations Examining Black Masculinity, Identity and Mental Wellbeing is an expansive new anthology of artworks and interviews showcasing the intricacies of contemporary Black male identities, edited and published by author and conceptual artist Glenn Lutz.
A glimpse into the Jessica and Kelvin Beachum Family Collection beholds an artistic world of hope, Black joy, reality, and aspiration. Each composition within the collection offers a unique story. These non-linear narratives on the Black experience, with their own distinct actualities exhibit a reality not often portrayed, yet a collective, lived experience that strives to represent a livelihood untouched.
What we see is political. Taking up space is resistance. Walking through the gallery space hung with pictures, museum-goers act out and internalise a version of history… what happens when this space is infiltrated by those history has sought to exclude? With Black Bodies, White Spaces: Invisibility and Hypervisibility we see the coming together of artists exploring the Black Body in painting and posit how doing so is a form of resistance.
St. Louis native Dominic Chambers paints and draws large-scale scenes that depict Black men and women in leisure and contemplation--often reading books--as he draws inspiration from literary narratives in books, mythology and Black history. His work has been collected by the Perez Art Museum and J.P. Morgan Chase Bank Collection. He had his first solo institutional exhibition at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center. He's also curated exhibits at the Kravets Wehby Gallery in New York and has been a resident at Yale Norfolk and the New York Studio Residency Program.
Dominic Chambers creates large scale paintings and drawings that reference literary narratives cited in books, various mythologies, and African-American history. Specifically, working through color field paintings, his current work is invested in exploring moments of contemplation and meditation through reading and leisure.
A selection of paintings depicting Black men and women in moments of leisure and contemplation by St. Louis-born, New Haven-based artist Dominic Chambers. Interested in the relationship between reality and imagination — what is fact and what is fiction — Chambers is heavily influenced by literary narratives and historical references from books he has read.
2020 is not a year like other years. May, usually a marquee month of auctions and art fairs, is now but a mere whisper of its former self. But that’s not to say it’s without charms, as young artists around the world continue to make and debut new works in galleries that are both opened and closed to the public.
And so, though you might not be able to make the usual circuit of galleries, you can certainly still discover up-and-coming talents. This month we’re highlighting five emerging artists whose practices you might not know, but should—and whose most recent work can be experienced online through the Artnet Gallery Network.
Unexpectedly, the Connecticut city has emerged, both because of and despite its association with Yale, as an affordable and dynamic home for artists of all kinds.
For Dominic Chambers, a 29-year-old painter from St. Louis, the decision was clear when he graduated from Yale in 2019. “I thought, ‘I need to make work, not worry about rent, or whether I’m producing enough, or if it is going to sell.’ For me, it was purely practical and about freedom.”
By Kendra Walker
Books play a major role in the life and work of the New Haven, Connecticut–based painter Dominic Chambers; he has been an avid reader since he was young. “I wouldn’t be able to make my art without reading,” he said in a recent Zoom interview. He was particularly influenced by the magical realism in Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. “I realized how he could utilize magical realism to talk about the things that have happened to him and the aftereffects of generational trauma,” said Chambers, reflecting on the novel. When exploring Black identity, Chambers found that these topics—magic, imagination—were seldom part of the conversation.
By Evan Pricco
I had two windows open from Google searches right before sitting down to talk with New Haven-based painter Dominic Chambers, one researching concepts of Fabulism and how it relates to mythology and magical realism; the second, a heavy, daunting article from The Boston Globe that attempted to explain how the American collective consciousness has been tested in 2020, our lives reflected in the shadow of immense doubt and death, leaving so many with a greater sense of unease than anytime in our history. Little did I know that, moments later, Chambers would articulate how magical realism and escapism have synthesized to shape him as one of the freshest voices in contemporary art.
By Charles Moore
Dominic Chambers’s depictions of joy, lounging and reading help rethink the Black intellectual. The St. Louis, Missouri native earned his BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 2016, and soon after completed his MFA at the Yale University School of Art. His large-scale canvases pay homage to literary narratives and mythologies—and, in particular, to African-American history. The artist, who also collects, is exploring vibrant color-field paintings that feature moments of contemplation and leisure. The dichotomy is striking.
