Artist and Head of the ESOP Advanced Painting Course
Dan Coombs is a London based painter, a graduate of The Ruskin School, Oxford (1989-92) and the Royal College of Art (1992-94). He was Rome Scholar in painting British school in Rome (1994-5). He has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. Dan creates his compositions from studies in collage and paint, which unite his figures with entirely invented surroundings, landscape dream worlds and interior spaces. These are human encounters charged with a mysterious, symbolic power. They are explorations of guilt, beauty and fear of isolation; that draw on myth, religion and psychoanalysis in order to grasp the real within the imaginary.
The paintings of Dan Coombs have a formality of composition and balance that underpins the energy of their execution but remain deliberately left open to interpretation from the viewer. They are attempting to capture the essence of an emotional situation, to represent ideas or embody meanings. The figures have an uncanny ambiguity – they can be interpreted as emanations of the artist’s psyche, or as creatures in their own right – trapped within dreamlike, gestural landscapes of heightened colour. Solo shows include Nudes, New Art Projects, Heaven and Earth at The Fine Art Society, The Dreamers at Fred Gallery, The Garden at Mihai Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, The Cornerhouse, Manchester and The Approach Gallery, London.
Dan is currently the Head of the Painting Programme for the Masters/Postgraduate ESOP Advanced Painting Course and teaches on The Painting Year II course. He is senior tutor in painting at the University of East London and one of the founders of The Turps Banana Painting Programme. He has been Visiting Lecturer in Painting at the Ruskin School, Oxford ( 2001-2007) , Wimbledon School of Art ( 2005-2015) , Haute École d’art et de design in University of Geneva , Switzerland ( 2015-17) , as well as Chelsea School of Art , The Slade School of Fine Art , Winchester School of Art, Leeds University, Reading University, Goldsmiths College and The Royal Academy Schools. He was a mentor for the Jerwood Painting Fellowship (2015-16). He has written for Turps Banana Magazine as well as the online magazine Abstract Critical.