Dominic Chambers

(b. 1993 St. Louis, MO; lives and works in New Haven, CT) creates vibrant paintings that simultaneously engage art historical models, such as color-field painting and gestural abstraction, and contemporary concerns around race, identity, and the necessity for leisure and reflection. Interested in how art can function as a mode for understanding, recontextualizing, or renegotiating one’s relationship to the world, the artist sees painting as a critical and intellectual endeavor, as much as an aesthetic one. A writer himself, Chambers draws inspiration from Magical Realism, the writing of W.E.B Du Bois, Jung's concept of the shadow, and the poetry of Mary Oliver. Chambers' paintings feature recurring motifs and symbols that tether to surrealism, leisure, and the natural world. These symbols often take the form of objects and scenes with a history of social metamorphosis, such as kites and paper planes, while his chromatic brushstrokes of rainbows, moonbows and starry night skies magnify the dreamlike settings in which they exist. Chambers sees color as a protagonist in his paintings that is as important to unlocking their meaning as his subjects, and his deft manipulation of the tension and interplay between contrasting colors gives his work a subtle electric charge. In his most recent series, , Chambers situates his subjects in vivid landscapes that evoke shifting, monochromatic dreamscapes, and reference the mutability of our environment. The richly-hued paintings in this body of work depict open fields saturated in primary hues of red, yellow, and blue. Many of these scenes are populated by figures flying kites―a profoundly domestic activity pursued solely for its own sake, unconnected with external recognition or reward. In these works and throughout his oeuvre, Chambers proposes that enjoyment, stillness, or wonder can act as a gateway to private life and reminds us that leisure and recreation are critical to replenishing our own interiority. Chambers received his B.F.A from Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Milwaukee, WI in 2016, and his M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT in 2019. Solo exhibitions of his work have been organized at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis, MO (2023); Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art, Reston, VA (2022); Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY (2022); The August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Pittsburgh, PA (2020); Luce Gallery, Turin, Italy (2020); The Millitzer Studio and Gallery, St. Louis, MO (2017); and the Residential Gallery, Des Moines, IA (2017). Select group exhibitions featuring his work include , Pond Society, Shanghai, China (2023); , Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa (2022); , Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL (2022); , Green Family Foundation, Dallas, TX (2021); , Kavi Gupta, Chicago, IL (2021); , Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL (2020); , Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, CA (2020); , Hedreen Gallery, Seattle University, Seattle, WA (2020); , Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC (2019); , Hawthorn Contemporary, Milwaukee, WI (2019); , Green Hall Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, CT (2019); , Band of Vices, Los Angeles, CA (2019); , Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY (2018); , The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI and Chicken Coop Contemporary, Portland, OR (2017); , Portrait Society Gallery of Contemporary Art, Milwaukee, WI (2017); , Arts + Literature Laboratory, Madison, WI (2017); , John Fonda Gallery, Baltimore, MD (2016); , The Pitch Project Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (2016); , NYSRP Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2015); , Yale Norfolk School of Art, Norfolk, CT (2015); , MIAD Galleries, Milwaukee, WI (2014); , Contemporary Art Gallery, St. Louis Community College – Florissant Valley, St. Louis, MO (2013); and , Art Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO (2013). Chambers’ work is in a number of private and public collections, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (promised gift); Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Long Museum, Shanghai, China; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA; Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA (promised gift); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL; Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels, Belgium; Xiao Museum of Contemporary Art, Rizhao, China. Chambers is the recipient of the Robert Reed Drawing Scholarship, Yale University, New Haven, CT (2018); Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship, Yale Norfolk School of Art (awarded through Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design) (2015); and the Varsity Art XVIII Award, St. Louis Community College – Florissant Valley, St. Louis, MO (2014). He has completed residences at the New York Studio Residency Program, Brooklyn, NY (2015), and the Yale Norfolk School of Art, Norfolk Historic District, CT (2015).