About
Selected artist features in the press. For a complete list, please visit the Bibliography and Publication sections of my C.V.
“Artwork in guestrooms are equally politically pondering with pieces from STABLE artists Damon Arhos, Matthew Mann, Andy Yoder and Melvin Nesbitt. Each one of these American-born artists creates work built on strong structuralism – from queer culture and social activism, to consumer culture and the environmental crisis.”
— Harry Johnson, “CitizenM Announces First Hotel in Washington DC,” eTurboNews, October 22, 2020.
“Arhos’ studio is a happy space of zoned messes. On one table, parts of a sewing project await his return, while another has collage and stencil bits laid out. Paintings in various stages of completion hang on the walls, and his computer with video editing software is tucked around the corner. His interdisciplinary practice, he explains, laughing, is essentially “doing a bunch of a lot of things but not doing a lot of one thing.
“A recent graduate of MICA’s low residency Studio Art MFA who now teaches at Bowie State, Arhos works across many modalities at once, letting his ideas about gender, sexuality, and his childhood in Texas dictate the media in which they will be expressed. Growing up in the 1970s in Austin, Texas, hunting and fishing were pastimes Arhos’ father expected him to adopt. Arhos’ work now plays with pieces of hunting culture, combining rifle ads, camouflage, and taxidermy with glitter and images of Victoria’s Secret runway models to pose questions about the constructs we place on gender identity.”
— Suzy Kopf, “Art AND: Damon Arhos,” Bmore Art, August 22, 2019.
Q: Why are duality and conflicting narratives such important themes throughout your works?
“I am one artist among many who use their work to highlight ways in which our culture opposes itself. Of course, we all have our own viewpoints that we use as bases for our art practices. With my own, I have chosen to explore issues of gender roles, sexual orientation, and human relationships given my identity as a gay American. We live in a time when those of us who are part of the LGBTQ community see so many dichotomies. For example, we can discuss the June 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that established same-sex marriage in all 50 states versus the June 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. From my perspective, these two events—which occurred approximately one year apart—represent affirmation and rejection, the landmark of love and inclusion versus the tragedy of hatred and discrimination. Historically, these types of puzzling conflicts have existed for centuries. However, via my own art practice, I hope to show others what it is like to experience these contradictions every day.”
— “I Love To Hate You: Damon Arhos,” IA&A at Hillyer Blog, August 22, 2019.
“The D.C.-based interdisciplinary artist Damon Arhos attempts to show the contradictory feelings and circumstances he often experiences as a gay man in today’s world: both proud and shamed, affirmed and reviled.
“Such a disorienting state of affairs is represented or reflected in “I Love To Hate You,” a series of artworks currently on display at the contemporary art gallery now known as IA&A at Hillyer.
“In his painting series The Antidote, for instance, Arhos evokes the stigma and shame associated with being HIV-positive, as well as with taking Truvada as an HIV preventative measure. Yesterday’s 30, filmed on Super 8, mourns the tragic loss of 30 transgender people in the United States in 2017. Finally, with Trapped, Arhos has constructed a lustrous tower out of rat traps enhanced with metallic paint, intended as a metaphor for how many LGBTQ Americans feel when facing both embrace and disdain.”
— Doug Rule, “Gallery: Damon Arhos’ ‘I Love To Hate You,’” Metro Weekly, August 16, 2018.
“So when Damon Arhos elevates a bottle of Truvada to pop-icon status, it’s a gesture that Gen-Xers might recognize. For “The Antidote (No. 1–7)” (2018), the artist creates seven images of a prescription-bottle label for the drug in the way of Andy Warhol silkscreen prints. Arhos’ paintings have the same timeless feel that Warhol reserved for celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Mao Zedong (and also the Campbell’s soup can and the electric chair). By taking the same tack as the Pop Art great, Arhos signals an affinity between Warhol’s subjects and his own—a daily pill that offers hope but not a cure.”
— Kriston Capps, “Damon Arhos Channels Andy Warhol and Other Pop Art Greats at IA&A at Hillyer,” Washington City Paper, August 10, 2018.
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