Interviews from Yale University Radio WYBCX
Damien Deroubaix
Portrait of Damien Deroubaix by Arno Lam
Damien Deroubaix, born 1972 in Lille, France. Lives and works in Paris and Meisenthal (France).
Damien Deroubaix studied in Saint-Etienne and in Germany (Karlsruhe, 1998). Since 2003, his work has been shown in the leading European institutions and has been presented in many solo shows, particularly in Switzerland and Germany. He has spent a good deal of time abroad, notably for residences at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin (2005) and ISCP in New York (2008). In 2009, he is nominated at the Marcel Duchamp Prize. His works are in the largest national collections : the Musée d´Art Moderne, the Centre Pompidou, the MAMC Strasbourg, the FRAC Midi-Pyrénées, Limousin and Basse Normandie, the FNAC CNAP, the Musée du Dessin et de l'Estampe Originale in Gravelines, and international collections, among them those of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Mudam, Luxembourg, the Saarlandmuseum, Saarbrücken, the Museu Coleçao Berardo, Lisbon, the Albrecht-Dürer-Haus-Stiftung, Nuremberg, the Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen.
Damien Deroubaix's artistic practice features a great diversity of forms and techniques: oil painting, watercolour, engraving, tapestry, wooden panel carving, but also sculpture and installation. This variety combines with highly eclectic references, often cohabiting in his works in a spirit that is reminiscent of iconoclastic Dada montages. Motifs from medieval danses macabres mingle with evocations of tragic chapters from modern history; topical images are juxtaposed with mythology and folklore; the history of art and the metal music scene collide. His paintings are openly expressionist, often making reference to apocalyptic themes, and perhaps this is what makes them so timeless.
Metamorphosis oil and collage on canvas 78x59 inches, 2018.
Death, oil and collage on canvas 78x59 inches, 2018