We announce a solo exhibition by Dominic Chambers at the Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art. What Makes the Earth Shake Tephra ICA September 10 - November 20, 2022. Dominic Chambers (b. 1993 St. Louis, MO; lives and works in New Haven, CT) creates vibrant paintings that engage art historical models, such as color field theory and gestural abstraction, along with contemporary concerns around race, identity, and the necessity for leisure. Chambers is interested in how art can function as a mode for understanding, recontextualizing, or renegotiating one’s relationship to the world, and views painting as a critical and intellectual endeavor, as much as it is aesthetic. Chambers draws inspiration from literature with a special focus on the theory of Magical Realism and the writing of W.E.B. Du Bois, particularly Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk, and one of its central themes―the veil. The veil is a product of racial injustice that provides a metaphorical lens through which Black bodies are observed and experienced, and references to the veil appear throughout the artist’s work, often times in large swaths of color that obscure the figures in the Wash Paintings series, or in the recurring use of a raindrop motif as both an active and passive element in Chambers’ work. Many of Chambers’ compositions incorporate fabulist elements, including ghostly silhouettes that serve as stand-ins for the artist and surreal landscapes that feel familiar yet unplaceable. Dominic Chambers, Dark Skin of a Summer Shade, 2019, Oil on Canvas, 161 x 182.8 cm (63.3 x 71.9 inches). Courtesy of the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin, Italy. @chambersdominic @tephra_ica #dominicchambers #tephraica