Dameon Priestly's paintings with an 'Outsider Realism' ...

Artist’s Biography:

Dameon Priestly was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He graduated from the University of Ulster 1988 with a BA Hons 2:1 Fashion and Textiles - Design and Illustration (Irish Design graduate of the year). Priestly is currently living and working in London. Forth coming exhibitions 2008: Lady Luck & Malice in Wonderland (Date to be confirmed) Jeffery West, Cullum Street, London EC3M . Followed by New Work
(September-October, date to be confirmed) Jeffery West, Piccadilly Arcade, London SW1Y 6NH. Priestly has an extensive exhibition history in London and accepted an invitation to exhibit in a group exhibition at the Florence Biennale in Italy last year.
Priestly's work lends itself to those basics of old-fashioned storytelling: plot, character, and action. The culminating results within the paintings are sometimes both simultaneously beautiful and haunting; or arresting in their strength. Dameon sources literature; both fact and fiction, movies, religion, social and political history as his inspirational pool; he lives and works in London and has sold paintings nationally and internationally.

Year of Birth: 1966

Artist’s Statement:

The preoccupation and inspiration for my paintings is the story behind the picture - what is not seen. Is there such a thing as an average man or woman? Is there ever such a thing as an average day? What goes on in the minds of the sexes and what happens behind closed doors? My paintings engage in a series of narratives which subtly weave their way through the paintings: a visual depiction of what can lie beneath the surface; at times in a seemingly innocent image. The way I view the world may be termed dark by some; this series of paintings reveals the 'strangeness' concealed behind the seemingly banal and random monotony of life's experiences and human behaviour. The stories they tell are those which the viewer does not necessarily want to know; and yet forces them to fill in that which is not always apparent, resulting in the uncomfortable recognition of a disturbing undertone. I depict people seeking an alternative life 'trying to achieve the American dream' - and I see straight to the fragile hearts of my characters without ever becoming sentimental. With rare exceptions, my stories end with disturbing circumstances; as I capture my subject's quiet desperation, with full emotional tension, anxiety and melancholy. These paintings are portrayed against everyday backdrops where the drama unfolds.