Diane Rosenstein Gallery is happy to announce Shape of Things, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Irish-born artist Damien Flood. In the past decade, Damien Flood has distinguished himself as one of the most original painters of his generation, exhibiting recently in Dublin, London, Belgium, and Cologne. The paintings in this exhibition were made during recent residencies in Paris (Centre Culturel Irlandais) and Los Angeles (La Brea Studio Residency) and are a melancholic celebration of those experiences. A new monograph on the artist – The Figure in the Carpet - accompanies the show. Damien Flood's oil paintings defy easy definition and reward repeated and extended viewing as they slowly yield up their half-revealed, half-concealed figures and narratives. They form a record of a myriad of thoughts and ideas, piecing together a new world in which the figure is fleeting and never fully whole. Flood mixes visual languages and motifs comprising of abstract forms, outlines, vases, hands and torsos that reoccur throughout his work. Some motifs bear a figurative semblance, while others are removed from any context. The experience is poetic.

The title – Shape of Things­- alludes to the act of seeing imagined forms and shapes in the everyday. Silhouettes of objects creating a figure, intricate designs in a carpet conjuring up far off lands or faces appearing in hedges in low yellowing street light. The arrangements of disparate fragments within Flood’s paintings seem to form a similar function, allowing for multiple readings of new forms and tangential journeys. 

This is the artist’s first solo show with the gallery. He previously exhibited in Los Angeles in 2017 in our group show, Wouldn’t it be nice if we could dream together? and Carrion Flowers, a solo show at The Cabin LA. Damien Flood would like to thank the Arts Council of Ireland, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, and Danny First, Los Angeles, for their support. 

Damien Flood (Ireland, b. 1979) is a painter based in Dublin, Ireland. His work is grounded in early writings on philosophy, theology, alchemy, and the natural sciences and also explores the mutability of 'reality' and language.  Recent solo shows include: The Figure in the Carpet, Green on Red Gallery (2018), Theory of Two Centres, Stephane Simoens, Knokke (2017), Carrion Flowers, The Cabin, Los Angeles (2017). Recent group shows include: DF/HW, Thomas Rehbein, Cologne (2018), Known Unknowns, Limerick City Gallery (2017), and Wouldn’t it be nice if we could dream together?Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Los Angeles (2017). In 2013, he was notably included in Island: New Art From Ireland, Galleria Civica diModena, Italy.