About
Damaris Athene’s transdisciplinary practice explores the Posthuman and how lived experience mediated through technology offers new ways of viewing the materiality of the body and understanding what the body could be. Posthuman theory offers an opportunity to reexamine hierarchies in a post-anthropocentric world, blurring the borders between humans and non-humans. Athene is drawn to where language fails us but embodied experience does not. Her work inhabits liminal space, slipping between the real and unreal, and swimming through permeable boundaries between bodies, the organic and synthetic, the digital and physical, and 2D/3D space. Work transmutes from painting to sculpture, performance, photography, and digital collage, often accumulating in installations.
Athene’s practice mutates and evolves, feeding itself like the ouroboros and mirroring the unrelenting regurgitation of imagery on the internet. She explores the fluid interconnections of matter and life, the entanglement of humans, animals, the environment and technology. Uncanny illusions create a sublime and slippery reality, interfering with your perception. Doubling disguises duplicitously. Work folds in on itself and is kneaded into new forms. Depth is flattened and then reformed. Bodily leakage is contained, sanitised and controlled. Fluids attempt to flow but freeze and glitch. Digital flatness and perfection seduce but obstruct any sensual satisfaction.
Tactile padded paintings entice with their erotic corporeal forms, photographs question authenticity, and digital collages blur the border between the digital and physical. Glass sculptures are both liquid and solid, fragile yet strong, transparent yet impermeable. Membranes stretch, concealing what lies beneath.
Photo: Stephen Chung
CV
b. 1992, Bristol, UK. Lives and works in London, UK.
Education
2024 MA Ceramics & Glass, Royal College of Art, London, UK (Marit Rausing Scholarship)
2023 MA Fine Art, City & Guilds of London Art School, London, UK (Leverhulme Trust Scholarship)
2015 BA (Hons) Painting, Camberwell College of Arts, London, UK
2013 Erasmus exchange, Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, Belgium
2011 Foundation in Art & Design, Falmouth University, Falmouth, UK
Solo Exhibitions
2024 Solo booth with SLQS Gallery for the Women in Art Fair, Mall Galleries, London, UK
2022 All Trussed Up and Nowhere to Go, ] G A Z E [ Art Space, Shropshire, UK
2021 If Only I Could Be 2D (Online), Compact Contemporary, Leeds, UK
I Wish I Was As Hot As My Memoji (Online), The Open Dresser Gallery, Sevenoaks, UK
2019 Cheer Up Love, Peterhouse Brewhouse, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
2018 I Shall Walk Softly There, Wigan S.T.E.A.M., Wigan, UK
2017 Lovely in Her Bones, St Barnabas Gallery, Cambridge, UK
Group Exhibitions
2024 Physical, Curated by Alex Fox & Kate Williams, Lea Bridge Library Pavilion, London, UK
Murmurations, Preston Fitzgerald Arts Advisory presents at Avenue Studios, London, UK
Prelude in Asylum, Asylum Chapel, London, UK
School of Arts & Humanities Postgraduate Show, Royal College of Art, Battersea, London, UK
A Landscape of Chance, SLQS Gallery, London, UK
Dawn on your skin, Feelium Gallery, Curated by Anzhela Popova, London, UK (Duo)
In Loving Memory, Guts Project Space, Curated by Charlotte Leseberg Smith, London, UK (Trio)
Echoes of Existence, Upper Gulbenkian Gallery, Royal College of Art, Kensington, London, UK
Finding Place, The Ancient Priors, Curated by Sophie Nowakowska and Alison Dollery, Crawley, UK
Unveiling Abstractions, Hypha HQ, Curated by Zoë Goetzmann and Melissa Vipritskaya Topal, London, UK
2023 Affordable Art Fair, MeetFrida, Hamburg, Germany
Robert Walters Group UK New Artist of the Year Award, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
current/s, PHOTOPIA and MeetFrida, Hamburg, Germany
Adjacent Colours, D Contemporary, London, UK
Meat Market #1, Disused Butcher’s Shop, Curated by Sophie Nowakowska, London, UK
Bodies, Gluttony and Me, Pictorum Gallery, London, UK
2022 NOW Introducing, Studio West Gallery, London, UK
AIR Open 2022, AIR Gallery, Altricham, UK
BEYOND IMAGE, MeetFrida, Triennale der Photographie, Hamburg, Germany
A BODY: FIGURE AND FLESH, FLOOR_, Seoul, South Korea
2:2 (Online), WetDovetail Gallery, Middlesborough, UK
Our New World, ArtGirlRising x Subject Matter x FORA, London, UK
Before the moon I am, Hoxton Arches, London, UK
Mind, Kingshill House, Dursley, UK
Warmth, Stay Home Gallery, Paris, Tennessee, USA
2021 Together We Rise (Online), Visionary Art Collective curated by ArtGirlRising, USA
Well, Well, Well, Leyden Gallery, Aldgate House, London, UK
Abstract, Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield, UK
Woolwich Contemporary Print Far, London, UK
DECONTEXTS, Loosen Art, Rome, Italy
Open Fragment (Online), Pragmata Collective, UK
Traces (Online), AIR Gallery, Altrincham, UK
EX06 (Online), FLOORR Magazine, London, UK
The Sky Has No Surface (Online), UK
CUTOUT (Online), Subsolo, Lisbon, Portugal
Emerging Artists 2021 Exhibition (Online), dōdōmu gallery, UK
REBIRTH (Online), The Holy Art, London, UK
2020 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London, UK
Open Studios Online, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, UK
The Cambridge Wide Open, Motion Sickness Project Space, Cambridge, UK
2019 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London, UK
John Hughes Arts Festival, Jesus College, Cambridge, UK
Selected Open, Michaelhouse, Cambridge, UK
2018 Present, Perfect, Continuous, Zverev Contemporary Art Centre, Moscow, Russia
Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, Woolwich Royal Arsenal, London, UK
Beep Painting Prize 2018, Swansea College of Art, Swansea, UK
PrintFest Sevenoaks, Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope Gallery, Kent, UK
Creative Reactions, St Barnabas Church, Cambridge, UK
Rejuvenation, UNA Gallery at St Mary’s Works, Norwich, UK
AWOMENfest, DIY Space for London, London, UK
John Hughes Arts Festival, Jesus College, Cambridge, UK
Winter Blues, The Cass Art Space, London, UK
Queen’s Arts Festival, Queen’s College, Cambridge, UK
2017 Open Exhibition, Hot Numbers, Cambridge, UK
Winter 2017 at St Barnabas Press, St Barnabas Gallery, Cambridge, UK
Platform for Emerging Arts 15, Leyden Gallery, London, UK
Open Studios 2017, St Barnabas Press, Cambridge, UK
White Clouds with Ink, The Blue Moon, Cambridge, UK
2016 Epidermal Dress: An Exhibition, Safehouse 1, London, UK
Clyde and Co Award Shortlist, Clyde and Co, London, UK
2015 Undergraduate Degree Show, Camberwell College of Arts, London, UK
Anatomy 2015, The Old Operating Theatre Museum, London, UK
2014 Hans Brinker Painting Prize 2014, Hans Brinker Hotel, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Open 2014, Peckham Platform, London, UK
Verge, Parkhall Business Centre, London, UK
7th Site Presents: Jar, Ongean, London, UK
2012 End, Camberwell College of Arts, London, UK
Awards and Prizes
2023 New Emergence Art Prize (Shortlisted), UK
Robert Walters Group UK New Artist of the Year Award (Shortlisted), London, UK
CGLAS Prize for Outstanding MA Fine Art Exhibition, London, UK
THE TAGLI 01.23 Collection and Mentorship Award (Shortlisted), London, UK
2022 NOW Introducing 2022 Art Prize (Shortlisted), Studio West Gallery, London, UK
2021 CuratorSpace Artist Bursary #13, CuratorSpace, UK
PERSPECTIV_A Feminist Photography Competition, La Vienisima (Shortlisted), Vienna, Austria
2018 Beep Painting Prize (Shortlisted), Swansea, UK
Aesthetica Art Prize (Round Two), York, UK
2015 Clyde & Co Art Award (Shortlisted), London, UK
2014 Hans Brinker Painting Prize (Shortlisted), Amsterdam, Netherlands
Press/Features
2024 What can and should the body be?, London Cult Magazine, 26th March
Crawley initiative explores "What do we need art for?”, Sussex Express, 20th March
2024 - Issue 98, London Art Roundup, 26th February
The Top 5 Art Exhibitions to See in London in March, Tabish Khan, FAD Magazine, 9th March
Suboart Magazine Nr.17, January
2023 City & Guilds MA Show 2023 Review, London Art Roundup, 3rd September
2023 - Issue 64, London Art Roundup, 15th May
Bodies, Gluttony and Me, Where’s the frame?, 25th April
2022 Highlights der Volta Basel. Auf diese Messe-Stände freuen wir uns, 8th June
2021 Curator Space Artist Bursary #13 Article, November
Feature with Interim Arts, 30th August
Interview with Danielle Kay Ash, 31st May
Interview with Helen Dryden, 28th May
Feature on AURA’s Instagram, May
Finalist Feature, CtypeMag, April
FemDominate, The Mass, Issue 15, March
Week long feature on A Gallery From Home’s Instagram, March
Artist Interview with Holly Richards, Pipeline Gallery presents PipeUp, March
Ostrich Magazine, February
Artists Responding To…, Issue 6, February
Penny Thoughts #47, Online Zine by Snitch Publishes, February
2020 Christiana Ntetsika in Conversation with Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair Director, Lizzie
Glendinning (work featured), Made in Bed Magazine, November
2019 Damaris Athene Interview, The Indian Curator, 6th December
Cheer Up Love review, Varsity (Newspaper), University of Cambridge, 19th May
2018 Damaris Athene interview, Art Reveal Magazine no.38, April 2018, p.6-11; ISBN 9781388503475
A5 Magazine, Portfolio #10, January
2017 Camberwell College of Arts Blog, ‘IN THE KNOW: Alumna Damaris Athene’s solo show, Lovely In Her
Bones’, 2nd June
2016 Camberwell College of Arts Blog, ‘CAMBERWELL CAMEO: Damaris Athene’s Epidermal Dress
Exhibition’, 27th April
2015 Camberwell College of Arts Blog, ‘Power To The People? by Damaris Athene’, 15th June
Art & Music Magazine, ‘New Era Estates’, Issue 29 - Spring, interviewing Barby Asante, Laura
Oldfield Ford & Jordan McKenzie
Residencies
2025 RCA/Konstfack Exchange supported by the supported by the Anglo Swedish Society (upcoming)
2021 Transient @t.ransienttt’s Instagram, UK, 27th Sep - 1st Oct
Rubber @_rubb3r’s Instagram, UK, 13th-19th September
DUNA @projectduna’s Instagram, Brazil, 20th-22nd August
After Illusion @afterillusion’s Instagram, 16th-29th March
Talks
2021 Studio Artists Live for Creative Careers Week, Youtube livestream, Wysing Arts Centre, 2nd March
2020 Open Studios panel discussion, Wysing Arts Centre, with Soheila Sokhanvari & Lawrence Epps
2019 Artist talk and panel discussion on the nude in art, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
2018 Artist talk, Wigan S.T.E.A.M, Wigan, UK
Collections
Private Collections (London, UK)
Private Collections (Cambridge, UK)
Private Collection (Bristol, UK)
Private Collections (Sevenoaks, UK)
Private Collection (Vienna, Austria)
Private Collection (Norton, MA, USA)
Teaching
2017-present Artist Facilitator, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK
2017-present Artist Facilitator, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, UK
Photo: Tom Morley