Damian Le Bas

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Damian Le Bas (b. 1963, Sheffield, England) is an artist associated with the Outsider Art label, a term used to refer collectively to self-taught, mentally ill or otherwise unconventional artists working outside the confines of the art establishment. The genre is also known by the name "Art Brut", a term coined by the French artist Jean Dubuffet in c.1945 to refer to works he collected that were "raw" or "ugly". Since 1987 several of Le Bas' pieces are held in the Musgrave-Kinley Collection of works by key Outsider Artists, currently administered by Monika Kinley. The Collection includes examples by Scottie Wilson, Madge Gill and other notable Outsiders.

Among his artistic influences he cites Vincent van Gogh, Scottie Wilson and Francis Bacon, and his work has been associated with that of the New York-based American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Le Bas' Irish Traveller heritage forms a recurrent theme in his work: recently, he has explored the claustrophobia experienced by nomads in modern European society by mixing cartography with folk portraiture.

Le Bas has exhibited frequently in the U.K, and his works have been shown in Tokyo, France, the United States and elsewhere. Le Bas' work has been included in both Prague Biennale 3 and the Roma Pavilion of the 2007 Venice Biennale.

He lives and works with his wife, the Romany artist Delaine Le Bas, in West Sussex on the south coast of England.

References

Paradise Lost: The First Roma Pavilion at Venice Biennale http://www.romapavilion.org/

CHAVI: Reclaiming Gypsy Representation, Novas Gallery, London http://www.novas.org/arts/redefining-bedlam,121,PAR.html

Transition Gallery: Featured Artists http://www.transitiongallery.co.uk/htmlpages/dreamland/artists/damianlebas.htm

England & Co Gallery, London http://www.englandgallery.com/artist_group.php?mainId=121&media=Drawings%20%26%20works%20on%20paper