Grace Dam
MFA ’21 Fine Arts Low-Residency
My focus in recent years has been on humanity and the complexity of life, with emphasis on social behavior, aspirations and desires. Squeeze Me is part of a new series with food as the subject matter, exploring human nature and desires. Food is a primitive, intrinsic measure for needs and wants. The often-overlooked side dishes such as these lemon wedges at times are a much-needed addition to some main dishes which are purposely unseen here. In minimal tones and colors, the canvas imbues the irony of unsweetened yet essential additive, and brings spotlight to what is unspoken yet, felt.
My work queries the obvious and the obscure; big or small, good or bad, all the things that complete others. This work asks the question on how little things can be significant, how the smallest details might be the most memorable ones.
Grace Dam is a Toronto based artist with a main practice in oil but also in other mediums. Her training was at OCADU (Toronto, BFA; minor in Photography) and in Boston (MassArt, MFA). Her current research is on humanity, social and environmental challenges touching on activism. Her works include figurative, abstract, landscape and still life paintings. With her landscape work, she pays tribute to her country, while her abstract works lean more toward social and political issues.
