{"id":55714,"title":"HAW Artist: Jimi Dams","description":"Jimi Dams (b. June 21, 1963, Mortsel, Belgium) is a Belgian-born artist based in New York. Following his graduation in Brussels in 1984, he relocated to Antwerp, where he first established his artistic practice.","content":"

\"ycjr2jhzhe5xuo8pri6kccrgtl0uasggfa5ukhprwu41p6ey.png.png?w=1140&v=2\"Jimi Dams<\/strong> (b. June 21, 1963, Mortsel, Belgium) is a Belgian-born artist based in New York. Following his graduation in Brussels in 1984, he relocated to Antwerp, where he first established his artistic practice. Emerging in the early 1980s, Dams developed a multidisciplinary body of work spanning printmaking, drawing, painting and collage.<\/p>

In 1997, Dams moved to New York City\u2019s East Village, where he continues to live and work.<\/p>

Dams\u2019 practice is closely associated with a contemporary reinterpretation of neo-pointillism. His work is grounded in the systematic deployment of the dot as a formal and conceptual unit. In his drawings, he employs graphite marks in varied densities and configurations, while his collage works are composed of sequins meticulously applied to construct images from accumulations of reflective dots.<\/p>

Since the early 1980s, portraiture has remained central to Dams\u2019 oeuvre. His earliest portraits took the form of linocuts depicting figures from his immediate social circle, including participants in and around the punk movement. These works evolved into graphite drawings on vellum and, subsequently, into his signature sequin-based portraits.<\/p>

A recurring conceptual underpinning of Dams\u2019 practice is the human attraction to reflective surfaces. Drawing on scientific discourse that links this phenomenon to evolutionary adaptations\u2014specifically, the association between shininess and the presence of water\u2014his work engages with the perceptual and psychological dimensions of visual desire. In this context, the sequin functions not only as a material element but also as a signifier of deeper biological and cultural impulses.<\/p>

\"3mxofm1jdlpumhcwpuottggioqlna0pz389x2lxcfy7ydlk8.png.png?w=1140&v=2\"<\/p>

Dams\u2019 portraits range from vividly coloured, highly detailed faces to compositions that isolate the eyes within monochromatic fields. His early exhibitions were informed by the aesthetics and ethos of punk and underground culture. More recently, his ongoing \u201cMuse\u201d series draws on photographic source material depicting influential figures from the punk and post-punk music scenes. Portraits of artists such as Ian Curtis (Joy Division) and Siouxsie Sioux (Siouxsie and the Banshees) are rendered in black iridescent sequins against silver grounds, producing works characterised by a heightened sense of luminosity and emotional intensity.<\/p>

Across his practice, Dams renders his subjects\u2014friends, musicians, and actors\u2014with a pronounced romantic sensibility that evokes both longing and nostalgia. His works function as sites of visual contemplation, offering moments of suspension that foreground shared experiences of human vulnerability and interiority.<\/p>

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