Damien Poulain is an artist responding to various invitations, engaging with design, architecture, and the built and natural environments. His practice transmutes influences from Shintoist, primitive, and heraldic symbology, as well as contemporary material and digital culture, to propose a universal visual language. Through an evolving range of formats including textile, paint, sculpture, and ephemeral architectural volumes, he devises glyphic systems of geometry and color. These codes raise questions about the ways humans relate to each other, to their surroundings, and to the mystery of existence.
Poulain’s work is nomadic and contextual in nature. His imprint ranges from monumental interventions to small-scale paintings, which he produces in an ongoing series linked to place and time. He intends for his projects to invite cross-cultural engagement and build communities, disseminating a universal message of love, beauty, and possibility.
In addition to the public spaces that are Poulain’s preferred canvas, his work has been exhibited at solo shows in London at Kemistry Gallery and KK Outlet; in Tokyo at Calm and Punk Gallery and Claska; and group shows at the Boghossian Foundation in Brussels, Museum of Graphic Design in Breda, Holland, and 21_21 Design Sight Museum in Tokyo.
Damien Poulain lives in Paris and works around the world.