Charlie James Gallery presents “Hard Line Fade,” New York-based artist Damien Davis’s first solo show with the gallery. The exhibition opened on October 24, and will run thru November 28, 2020.

Damien Davis, No Duty to Retreat (Blackamoors Collage #331), Laser-cut acrylic and stainless steel hardware, 15 x 21 inches, 2020

The work of NY-based artist Damien Davis (b. 1984) explores historical representations of Blackness, seeking to unpack the visual language of cultures and investigate how society codes, decodes, and recodes representations of race through craft, design and digital modes of production. Composed of glyphic shapes, patterns, and images, the works interact in prismatic ways, creating ever-shifting relationships to meaning, brokering new associations and conversations about how identity is performed in culture.

The new collection of works includes varieties of scale from his Blackamoors Collages series – pieces in which base patterns of carefully inlaid laser-cut plexiglass activate a superimposed level of laser-cut figures of significant cultural weight, composed again of plexiglass, connected by a variety of metallic screws, bolts, and nuts. The aesthetic of these new works conflates the pattern language of African textiles with the visual language of race as expressed in contemporary American political culture.

On view: October 24 – November 28, 2020; CLICK HERE to make an appointment; Call to confirm Covid precautions prior to visiting the gallery;

What: “Hard Line Fade”
Where: Charlie James Gallery, 69 Chung King Road, LA, 90012 
When: Runs thru November 28, 2020
Phone: 213 687-0844 
Website: https://www.cjamesgallery.com/