Damien Cifelli - The Thing Beyond: Adventures in Tarogramma

Jan 27 - Apr 20, 2024

  • The Thing Beyond: Adventures in Tarogramma

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    As a visionary young artist, Damien Cifelli is celebrated for his imaginative prowess, having garnered recognition through multiple prestigious awards. Winner of the 2023 East London Art Prize, Cifelli's creative genius extends across various mediums, from oil paintings to tapestries and sculptures. His ability to construct the fictional world of Tarogramma, complete with its unique culture, has captivated audiences. Notable among his accolades are the 2022 UK New Artists Award and the Delphian Open Call, establishing Cifelli as an emerging force in the contemporary art scene.The artist is born 1991 in Edinburgh, Scotland and currently lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal.

     

    Learn more about Damien Cifelli

    • Damien Cifelli Summiting Taro Mountain (Diptych), 2023
      Damien Cifelli, Summiting Taro Mountain (Diptych), 2023
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    • Damien Cifelli The Cup Final (Pre Game), 2023
      Damien Cifelli, The Cup Final (Pre Game), 2023
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  • "I investigate the diversity of people. Tarogramma is a place with no ethnic, cultural or gender dominance. It suggests the idea of a society where the eccentricity and distinct character of people takes precedence over other superficial attributes. Identity is expressed through iconography which creates a narrative thread between the paintings and sculptural work."
     
    Damien Cifelli, 2024

  • In "The Thing Beyond: Adventures in Tarogramma" at PULPO GALLERY, Damien Cifelli explores the many ways of depicting the fictional world of Tarogramma and its people but goes beyond the common rituals and ordinary social or societal standards. What is the appeal of the unknown, what comes after the comfort zone, where do we find adventure? And why is this thing beyond obviously so essential for an individual? On closer inspection, the works give us clues to these questions, inviting us to lose ourselves in the details, symbols, and references to historic paintings and sculptures.

  • Damien Cifelli

    The Emperor, 2023
    "One of the all-time greats of the game. The greatest, depending on who you ask. One of the old school; hard tackles, shouldering off opponents like they were children, that primal roar that came from the guts.  If it wasn’t for the betting scandals and those drug allegations he would be undisputed. But for supporters of The Golden Calf none of that detracts from his bludgeoning heroics in four cup finals. The Golden Era of The Golden Calf. The ultimate big game player. An icon of the old way. He wasn’t nicknamed ‘The Emperor’ for nothing."
     

    Damien Cifelli about The Emperor, 2023

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    Damien Cifelli, The Emperor, 2023

  • Damien Cifelli

    The Foothills, 2023
    The Foothills shows three guys, wearing neon-pink track suits in a natural environment under a cloudy sky, expecting something, an event, a change that might lead to an adventure. But they don't do anything, they expect the adventure to come to them, to happen. This passivity of the figures depicted is a common feature of Cifelli's work. The inhabitants of Tarogramma look directly at the viewer, with a certain indifference and dignity. Perhaps even with a hint of superiority.
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    Damien Cifelli, The Foothills, 2023

  • Damien Cifelli

    The Taro King, 2023

    The ‘Taro King’ is elected every year at the Gala and it’s always the same result. Few can remember it being anybody else, and most have forgotten why it's always him. But when the votes are counted he trudges up onto the stage, wearied by the weight of success, to don his taro root costume. Then come the photographs and the autographs, and being carried through the streets, though he rarely cracks a smile these days. Then he’s plied with drink all night until the next morning, when all that remains is a hangover and the knowledge that he is this years Taro King and will be again next year.

     
    Damien Cifelli about Taro King, 2023
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    Damien Cifelli, The Taro King, 2023
  • Cifelli's paintings successfully eschew the ethnical, cultural and sociotypical characteristics of today's generation. Using a deep understanding of icons and symbols and interrogating perceptions of aesthetics, community and identity, the dialogue between the right meaning of lifestyle and personality, Cifelli concentrates in his work on an equal, non-destructive, and highly authentic fictional dimension.
     
    He suggests in his work the ever more blurred line between reality and fiction - maybe one’s everyday struggle to escape the matrix. Using straightforward but classical methods involving oil on linen, but artistically and technologically alternating between small and large format canvases, Cifellis works depict in myriad ways across multiple compositions the complexity of human nature. With each painting, he reveals more from Tarogramm, but always leaving the viewer with some questions.