The British artist Dan Coombs ( b.1971 ) creates his compositions  from studies in collage and paint , which unite his  figures with entirely invented surroundings, landscape dream worlds and interior spaces. These are human encounters charged with a mysterious, symbolic power. They are explorations of guilt, beauty and fear of isolation, that draw on myth, religion and psychoanalysis in order to grasp the real within the imaginary.

The paintings have a formality of composition and balance that underpins the energy of their execution but remain deliberately left open to interpretation from the viewer. They are attempting to capture the essence of an emotional situation, to represent ideas or embody meanings. The figures have an uncanny ambiguity - they can be interpreted as emanations of the artist’s psyche, or as creatures in their own right – trapped within dreamlike, gestural landscapes of heightened colour.

 

 

 

 

Dan Coombs is an internationally exhibited painter who lives and works in London . Recent solo shows include Unfolding Man , Aleph Contemporary , 2020 ,Nudes , New Art Projects (2014) Heaven and Earth at The Fine Art Society (2011), The Dreamers at Fred Gallery (2009), The Garden at Mihai Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles (2005),The Cornerhouse, Manchester (2002), and The Approach Gallery, London ( in 2005, 2001, 1999 and 1997) . Recent Group Shows include Fully Awake ,Holden gallery , Manchester (2021) , Cuts , Matthiesen Gallery ( 2020 ) Glass Houses, Mcbean's Orchid Nursery, East Sussex, UK (2020) Edgelands (2017-18)The Crypt St. Marylebone Parish Church;  APT Deptford London , Aberystwyth Arts Centre; Hartlepool Art Gallery; ARB Cambridge University;Beverley Museum and Art Gallery ,Ghetto Anglaise, Observer Building , Hastings (2016), his curated show , Suspicion , Jerwood Space , London (2014), From Fly on the Wall,To Fly in My Soup , Galerie Dukan ,Paris,(2015) Anti Social Realism  Charlie Smith , London, (2015) Distorted Realities  The Dot Project , London (2015)Art Britannia, Art Basel Miami (2013 ), Dirty Pop , And Model , Leeds (2013 )  Neal Tait, Mike Silva, Dan Coombs , Charlie Dutton Gallery , London (2013),Something Old , Something New: Vito Acconci, Dan Coombs,  Rachel Harrison  Mary  Heilman, Franz West   Fred Gallery , London (2013 ) , Speak! Clown , Fold Gallery London (2013 ), Masquerade: Be Another , Stephen Lawrence Gallery, University of Greenwich (2013), A House of Many Windows , Collyer Bristow gallery , London ( 2013) , London Twelve: Contemporary British Art, City Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic (2012),  What Have I Done  at The Fine Art Society (2010), Viva Curandero at Mihai Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles (2007), Metropolis Rise: New Art from London , Shanghai and 798 Space, Beijing, China (2006), Collage at the Bloomberg Space, London (2004),Following and to be Followed at Le Consortium, Dijon (2004) , Lyon Biennale (2003), Young British Artists Part VI  at the Saatchi gallery (1996). Publications include  The New Neurotic Realism , Saatchi Publications (1998), and Young British Artists : The Saatchi Decade , Booth-Clibborn Editions (1999).

 

Dan Coombs studied at The Ruskin School , Oxford ( 1989-92) and the Royal College of Art (1992-94).He was Rome Scholar in painting, British school in Rome (1994-5).

 

Dan Coombs is currently senior tutor in painting at the University of East London and director of the Advanced Painting course at The Essential School of Painting, Wood Green,London. He is one of the founders of The Turps Banana Painting Programme , an independent art school located in Camberwell , South London. He has been Visiting Lecturer in Painting at the Ruskin School, Oxford (2001-2007), Wimbledon School of Art ( 2005-2015) ,and was visiting Professor at Haute ecole d'art et de design in University of Geneva , Switzerland ( 2015-17)  , as well as Chelsea School of Art , The Slade School of Fine Art , Winchester School of Art, Leeds University, Reading University,  Goldsmiths College , NCAD Dublin and The Royal Academy Schools.He was a mentor for the Jerwood Painting Fellowship (2015-16 ).He has written for Turps Banana Magazine as well as the online magazine Abstract Critical.