Dominic Samsworth

Ideals of pleasure and escapism collide with real world detritus and the excesses of global production in Dominic Samsworth’s (b. 1987, Wiltshire, UK) subtly sumptuous visual practice. Flattening the opulent consumerism and stylized hotel-hedonism of certain art fairs and resort vacations, Samsworth’s colorfield canvases consciously mimic physical forms, to the extent that they begin to simulate a three dimensional experience. In his sculptural and installation work, Samsworth literally shrink wraps furniture with beach debris, and pumps coconut fragrance in the air, conveying a time, space and culture whose facade of apparent luxury is belied by an undeniable tackiness. The thin film of plastic covers what ought to be a habitable space; we are now in a chaos-ravaged-paradise, stripped of exotic mysticism. Realized with material integrity in reference to hard-edged painting and formal precision, Samsworth’s work offers the satisfaction of a desert oasis, which on closer inspection reveals itself to be a finely crafted mirage.