davidpauldowns – David Paul Downs

David Paul Downs was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1978. Since then, he has lived and worked as an artist in New York and Chicago. In college, he explored photography, marking an important milestone in his artistic practices. In 2005 David Downs successfully combined his black and white photographs with his neo-expressionistic painting methods. His monochromatic and elegant works of photo-based art gained attention in Chicago in 2009. 2010, however, has become a year for artistic growth and experimentation for Downs, as he moves away from
photography.
David Downs’ latest works are large, representational oil paintings, mixed with heavy, sometimes fragile, texture-laden materials. Much of his work deals with connections lost between the people of today and places or things of the past. Downs refers to his work as “displaced nostalgia” and feels compelled by ancient artifacts and civilizations. Downs begins his work by researching an object or place to draw upon it’s history and mythology. The end result is a collection of pieces that tell a story of modern civilization, reflected in the past.