DALLAS, TX.- Celebrating Pride Month and Queer identity Keijsers Koning announces the exhibition "Dams’ Realism" presenting Jimi Dams’ oeuvre of drawings and paintings, including his most recent drawings which he started in 2022. The exhibition offers the artist perspective on life through various narratives from a youth marred by his conservative upbringing; detailed drawings of clouds that offer the reprieve of a daydream; to sexual situations entangled in humor. The artist sees life as a glass half full, but questions what the liquid is that remains; an optimist fueled by pessimism.

Jimi Dams’ career began in the 80-90’s as an artist, in the 2000’s he took a hiatus to run Feature Inc under the tutelage of Hudson, eventually setting out on his own and built Envoy Enterprises. The latter a gallery that paved its own road supporting cross generational artists and estates, a pillar for queer identity and artists questioning the norm. He continues to push the norm of the artworld through staging exhibitions with Empirical Nonsense.

Dams graduated from Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, but eventually moved to Higher Pedagogical Institute of the Empire in Brussels, under tutelage of the minimalist Luc Claus and achieved his teaching degree in 1984. His first shows explored the punk movement and the underground, which allowed him to work with such figures as Michael Clark (British post-punk ballet), Tom Lanoye, Peter Verhelst, Dennis Cooper, and Amanda Lear. His work was exhibited by Torch Gallery, Gracie Mansion Gallery, Allston Skirt, Aeroplastics, and S&H De Buck and such institutes as Neue Galerie Am Landesmuseum, Graz; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Fransisco; the Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield; Beaver College Art Gallery, Glenside; Aktionsforum Praterinsel, Munich; Contemporary Museum of Baltimore, Baltimore; Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Sint-Martens-Latem; and the New Museum, NY.

This exhibit is accompanied by a catalogue, with text by Gracie Mansion, Mo van der Haven with Mitsy Groenendijk (Torch family), and Bart Keijsers Koning.