Dan Coombs’ primary pre-occupation is the human psyche. His paintings, collages, and assemblages centre around the human face and/or figure which he presents in groups, couples, or singularly. The encounters one has with these figures in voids of different colours or otherwise articulated spaces are emotionally charged with mysterious and symbolic powers. They can be explorations of guilt, and/or beauty, and/or fear. Most crucially, they are paintings of what it is like to be in a moment, and are not external observations of one. Drawing on myth, religion, and psychoanalysis to grapple with both the real and imagined, they flip between a strangeness and intimacy which can be found in us all.

The paintings and collages retain a formality of composition and balance that underpins the energy of their execution. And yet, a substantial portion of their effectiveness is awarded by their openness, their inconclusiveness: the figures are not named and are formally abstracted. In Coombs’ collages, the figures are cut from grainy photographs painted over or entirely dramatised to eradicate most traces of true recognisability.

While figurative in his style, Coombs is an artist who investigates the profound reality of human interactions and who is not satisfied with a superficial resemblance. His figures have an uncanny ambiguity; they can be interpreted as emanations of the artist’s psyche, as symbolic representations of human conditions and moods, or as creatures in their own right, enclosed within dreamlike landscapes of heightened colour which themselves inform and are informed by these figures.

Dan Coombs is represented exclusively by FreddieFoulkes Gallery.