Ramsey Dau | An Ocean Beneath the Sea

LOS ANGELES, CA (October 12, 2016) - KM Fine Arts is pleased to announce An Ocean Beneath the Sea, a solo exhibition of new hyperrealist paintings by Ramsey Dau, on view from November 3, 2016 – December 23, 2016 at the gallery’s West Hollywood location at 814 N. La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90069. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, November 3, from 6-9pm with the artist in attendance. A catalog will accompany the exhibition and feature an essay by Arty Nelson.

The exhibition will feature ten new paintings, along with seven collages which served as compositional studies and his first three dimensional sculpture. This is the artist’s second exhibition with KM Fine Arts. Modern Painters will be featuring a biopic in their December issue on the occasion of this exhibition.

Ramsey Dau’s paintings exist in a space of tension between intuitive, subconscious composition and an intensely focused painterly practice. Informed by a collage aesthetic, his meticulously rendered paintings may appear to be multimedia works at first glance. Upon closer inspection, subtle hints of the artist’s hand can be unearthed.

The components found in Dau’s paintings are culled from his personal collection of imagery, text, knowledge of Art History, and his studies on human neuropsychology. His visual source material is in this body of work is amassed from local flyers, magazines, and books. Dau’s practice is based on aesthetics as dictated by what he refers to as his “internal compass”. Contrived works are of no interest to him creatively; instead, his work serves as a minimalist roadmap to the subconscious mind. He explains:

“At the end of the day, it comes down to aesthetics; I’m not trying to make some overt statement or narrative in the work. It’s more about listening to my internal compass in the collection and composition of subject matter, without an intellectual intention… Many of the works, after the fact, feel like they have a point of view and I like that the viewers are open to come to multiple interpretations about what the work is about.”

The most apparent source of tension in Dau’s work can be understood when considering his technical approach to the physical act of painting alongside his intuitive composition process. Works in this exhibition range in size from 36 x 36 inches to 72 x 72 inches, each hand painted with painstaking precision. Critic Art Nelson best explains this dichotomy in his recent essay:

“Dau’s many-stepped process offers the eye much to take in formally. Plainly put, the paintings are cool as shit to look at which as far as criterion goes beats everything. But beyond that—or rather, underneath that—lurks a powerful yin and yang; on one side, is the artist’s commitment to craft and refine a vibrant piece of art while, on the other side, is the artist’s conviction to protect, from even himself, the mysterious genesis of his compositions, the resulting fruits of Dau’s ambitions endeavor look and feel like nothing else presently being produced.”