Q&A: Damian Stamer

Damian Stamer, a first-year MFA student, is currently showing a solo exhibition entitled “Southern Comfort” at Freight Volume in New York City.

The show, running through May 19, features Stamer’s personal paintings as well as a film installment he collaborated on with fellow MFA student George Jenne.

Staff writer Carson Blackwelder spoke with Stamer about his show, his love of art and his personal perspective.

Daily Tar Heel: How did you get this solo show?

Damian Stamer: I was introduced to Nick Lawrence, the owner of Freight Volume, by my mentor, painter John Newsom, in 2010.

Nick believed in my work, and I’ve been showing with the gallery ever since in series of group shows and art fairs. The “Southern Comfort” exhibition was an opportunity to utilize the entire gallery space to present a cohesive body of recent paintings as well as my video collaboration, “Down in the Den,” with George Jenne.

DTH: Is it typical for first-year MFA students to book solo gigs?

DS: Probably not. But I think it definitely has happened before. But on a whole it is definitely, probably a bit of an abnormality.

DTH: What made you fall in love with art and want to pursue a career in it?

DS: Well, I was in New York and I thought I was making good work but I wanted to really dive into some theory, some concepts — basically I just thought that I had more to learn. I really like school and the academic environment and sphere and I wanted to go back and take it to the highest level.

DTH: Are there any difficulties associated with solo shows in contrast with group shows?

DS: Well, a solo show is just more work — it’s a little more involved. You have to fill the space.

The benefits of it are that it allows you to think thematically and you can kind of plan out how the exhibition is going to run and people’s experience walking through the place. So it gives you an opportunity to really produce your own show.

DTH: What was it like working with video as a secondary medium?
DS: It was my first time working with the medium, so it was great having George working along with me.

The good thing about art is that we started working with some broad themes, we had some large ideas about how we wanted to go about it and then we just learned through just doing it and working together. I hope to collaborate with George again, it’s a really exciting way to work through your own ideas to be able to bounce ideas around with someone else.

DTH: What is the driving theme, or themes, of your exhibit?

DS: One is that I am trying to explore, again, the spaces that I explored during my childhood — the farms and fields of rural North Carolina. I grew up outside of Durham.

But at the same time, while diving into the memory and nostalgia, I waned to make inventive paintings that really work with the idea of space. So creating space paradoxes or things that really push and pull the viewer in and out of these landscapes through abstractions.

And also, very simply put, trying to make very strong paintings that put myself out there and say to the world that I’m a painter. This is my first big show on a very large stage and I wanted to stake my claim as a contemporary painter.

DTH: Do you think that growing up in North Carolina gives you a different perspective than other artists?

DS: Definitely. I think that I am really interested in the correlation between where we are from — not only where we are from geographically, but the space and the landscapes that we are surrounded by growing up and the people that are around us.

Being from North Carolina gives me an interesting perspective as compared with when I was living up in New York, you know, a very metropolitan area. I first started painting there missing this open nature and landscapes. I think that it has definitely been an advantage.