AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS
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AWARDS BEST PAINTER / VISUAL ARTIST NOW MAGAZINE READERS POLL AWARDS (1998, 1999, & 2000) BEST OF SHOW AWARD MADONNA: AN ART EXHIBIT HONOURABLE MENTION: MIXED MEDIA AWARD 1994 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition FEATURED SUAVE LIFESTYLES (October 2012) read article PICCSY BLOG (May 2012) read article TARGET AUDIENCE MAGAZINE (April 2012) read article LUCID MEDIA MAGAZINE (July 2010) read article INSIDE ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE (September 2008) read article PEACE MAGAZINE (Spring 2008) read article MIX MAGAZINE (Winter 2004) read article OCEAN DRIVE MAGAZINE (March 2001) read article LOLA MAGAZINE (Summer 2002) read article TORONTO LIFE FASHION MAGAZINE (April 2000) read article NOW MAGAZINE "WHAT I WEAR" FASHION SECTION NAKED NEWS TV (March 2002) MODERN MANNERS Hosted Art Gallery Segment (W Network) ACHIEVEMENTS TRAGIC LIFESTYLE MEDIA Design/Merchandise company TOUCHED BY FIRE Commitee Member DAMMIT! CREATIONS Design Company BOOK COVER ART WORK A SAFE EXISTENCE ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF TOWN (Black Bile Fiction) FRESH MEAT (Rush Hour Revisions) FOUNDER OF THE K.O.A.R. FESTIVAL Kensington Outdoor Art Revue |
SAUVE LIFESTYLES October 2012
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INTERVIEW: A Discourse with DAMMIT!For those of you who weren’t at Gate 403, Toronto, July ’94 (I would have gone but I was two years old and couldn’t drink martinis) witnessing the debut show of the sensational Portuguese-born, Canadian artist Joey DAMMIT! , then let me acquaint you a little with his work. Name: Joey DAMMIT! (And don’t spell or say it any other way, he will sense it and come for you. You’ve been warned.) LIBBY BROWN Return To Top |
PICCSY BLOG May 2012
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50 Visual Artists from Toronto You Should Know AboutA mixed media/collage pop artist with a background in the world of advertising, it’s not surprising that he’s parlayed his love-hate relationship with mass media into great success, becoming one of Canada’s premier pop artists. source alyssacharles Return To Top |
TARGET AUDIENCE MAGAZINE April 2012
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April Featured Art Joey DAMMIT! Catches Celebrities in Darkest HourWhat catches the eye most? Well, besides an image of the viewer himself (because let’s face it; if it’s about us then we want to know all about it), people are drawn to icons and celebrities – especially after they fall from grace. Love them, hate them; endorse them or revile them, celebrities turn heads. Joey DAMMIT! uses mixed media in a collage-pop approach to his art. His love-hate relationship with mass media forged from a background in advertising allows him to draw out the layers of genius that made us fall in love with icons from beneath layers of self-loathing, neglect, abuse, and overindulgence. In 2009, this premier Canadian pop artist unleashed his “a visual obituary, all in spectacular pop-technicolor” at The Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, appropriately enough from “Valentine’s Day” on February 14 through the 26th. DAMMIT!’s obsession with the darker side of cult celebrity as seen in the show titled, “Don’t Fear the Reaper Or: How Icons Met Their Maker” was inspired by the Stanley Kubrick film, “Dr. Stranglove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” but his work extended to a point of premonition when he decided to sketch Amy Winehouse’s demise before the event. From pioneers of all sides of art from Jackson Pollock to authors Virginia Woolf who walked out into the waves to Hunter S. Thompson who shot himself and asked to have his ashes shot out of a canon to music legends John Lennon and The Beatles to Sid and Nancy, “the IT couple” and into the barrel of Kurt Cobain’s shotgun. DAMMIT! also forays into the film world capturing Marilyn Monroe sandwiched between Kennedy brothers, James Dean, and Heath Ledger. The “Superman curse” and Princess Di’s demise are etched into artwork as well. The expressive nature of these celebrities as seen through the eyes of death himself is what makes Joey DAMMIT!’s work so enrapturing – like watching a car crash unfold when the driver knows he just pull off the highway to avoid getting involved. Perhaps, that is what these celebrities represent to the masses. We live vicariously through their antics, their self-loathing with all the catharsis brought by the music, film, and writing, but without the chaos fame brings. We escape the death, but we watch with judgmental eyes asking how could so-and-so do that to himself. Ellen Eldridge Return To Top |
LUCID MEDIA MAGAZINE July 2010
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ART, BLACK DOGS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING DAMMIT!In many ways, it was a miracle that Joey DAMMIT! even answered the telephone that day in late May 2008. Deep in the depths of depression, he wasn't much in the mood for conversation. Yet, on that occasion, he did manage to pull himself from the couch to make the 10-foot walk to the phone. "I can still see myself standing there," DAMMIT! says from his downtown Toronto home." It was an old friend and she wanted me to take part in a show that was happening at the Cameron." DAMMIT! says he wasn't much interested. The show was on cars. He wasn't much of a gear-head. "I don't know anything about cars," he dispassionately told his friend. "I'm not interested." It's hard to know what it was about this interaction that made DAMMIT!'s friend snap. But, lucky for him she did. "She said to me ÔOh fuck off Joey. Think about it. How did Jayne Mansfield die?'," she said. Suddenly, unexpectedly something was sparked. Putting down the phone, he walked to his bedroom where he knew there was a book that featured a photograph of that graphic Hollywood death. Opening the book up and staring at its grizzly details he was suddenly interested in cars. It had been 18-months since he last painted. Three days later the painting that would re-launch his career was complete. Even more importantly, the darkness that had engulfed him for nearly 18 years had lifted. In the two years that have since passed, he's never gone more than three days without painting. He's done both commercial and gallery work and has worked tirelessly to promote mental health issues. He jokes that, as an artist, he was almost required to struggle emotionally. However, if you spend more than a few moments talking to him it becomes clear just how much his depression has affected him and how relieved he is to be past it. For DAMMIT! depression wasn't sexy, something to give him emo cred. No, it was a crippling disorder that prevented him from truly succeeding. Talent allowed him to fake it, but those closest to him knew better. "I used to need to get wasted to deal with my openings," DAMMIT! says. "It was the only way that I could deal with the depression and - as I always say, its partner that is always there - anxiety." The question, then, is does the depression influence DAMMIT!'s work? And, if so, how much? DAMMIT! isn't sure. Although he has dubbed his style "Manic Montage" he is not 100 per cent convinced it's all about the illness. "I don't think my depression has in anyway shaped my creativity, or subject matter," he says. "At least that's what I believe, but subconsciously and unconsciously I sometimes look at a finished work -- and it could be pictures, or words in a massive jungle of collage -- and I'll be damned if the depression, and my battle with it, hasn't reared its ugly head." DAMMIT! doesn't fully understand why the depression lifted. Medication could have played a role, but even his doctors aren't sure, DAMMIT! says. However, he does have an idea of how he survived it. During the many years of his depression - DAMMIT! says that he only experienced two brief periods when the darkness lifted in the previous 18 years prior to 2008 - he never lost one friend. It would be months between seeing them in some cases, but they maintained a level of loyalty and dedication that he is eternally grateful for. "There were times when I just wanted to fucking off myself," he says without self-consciousness. "But the reason I didn't was my family and friends - I didn't want to leave them alone." Of course there was also the art. "I'm not really a religious person, but I like to talk about this thing, the universe," he says. "The universe kept saying that there is a reason you are here and it was for the art." It's now been almost exactly two years since the phone call. DAMMIT!'s life has changed dramatically, he says. He's active. He enjoys time with his friends again. And, he's been incredibly productive. Yet, he still worries about a return to his old ways. After 18 years of that shit you don't take anything for granted. Even today there isn't a day that goes by that I don't wake up and go ÔOh fuck, oh fuck do I feel good today?' "But then you realize that you are and you move on with the day." These days that likely means a walk down the hallway to ride the elevator to his basement studio. A testament to the effect DAMMIT! has on those around him, it's a space that was given to him. It's also a space that fits the aesthetics of an artist that embraces the absurd and morbid in society without ever losing his sense of humour. After walking past a abandoned swimming pool that wouldn't look out of place in a really bad horror b-movie -- 1970s era exercise equipment lined up along the deck along with several TVs in various states of working order - you find yourself in a colourful and cluttered space that instantly makes sense. Magazines are everywhere on the floor. Paint cans clustered up against the wall and the painted faces of pop culture icons from the Beatles to Kurt Cobain stare down at you from the walls above. This is DAMMIT!'s space. It's a place where he says that he finds inspirations and where he can lose hours of his life engrossed in his work, while loud music blares from a stereo. He keeps an air mattress in the space for nights that go longer than anticipated. Sometimes, he says, he just sits down there to think. It's from this space that his wonderfully bizarre collages emerge. Like many artists, DAMMIT! can't really explain where his ideas come from. "There is no such thing as an accident in art," DAMMIT! says. "Even when something doesn't work out you layer something else on, or put something else in and it all becomes a part of the final thing." The chaos of DAMMIT!'s work is what makes it unique. As a Pop artist he gets compared to Andy Warhol, but such comparisons are surface at best. DAMMIT! doesn't have an easy answer to why he does the type of work that he does. When forced to guess he jokes that he must resort to cliché. "As much as I hate saying things like this, I don't think I ever had a choice." He says. "The genre, Pop Art, was in a way presented to me in much the same way I imagine John the Baptist's head was presented -- on a proverbial creative silver plate. I started with the exact same intention that I have today when it comes to creating my art - to please one person, myself."DAMMIT! says he is likely most influenced by movies. At the height of his depression, the movie theatre was one place that he felt right, and that love of film has stayed with him now that he is healthy. Perhaps above all else, DAMMIT!'s work is human. It's accessible a bit irreverent and decidedly unpretentious. You can stare at a DAMMIT! piece all day and still not find the inside joke. That's by design DAMMIT! says. "I consider myself both an artist and an entertainer, "he says. "That's always been important to me." What's also important to DAMMIT! is making the most of his remaining time. For 18 years darkness engulfed him. Now that it's lifted he says that he wants to make the most of the opportunity, creating and inspiring. "Joey's happy," he says. "DAMMIT! loves his life right now," he says. Duane Rollins Return To Top |
Peace Magazine Issue 90 - 2008
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Manic MontageHow long have you been in the artwork game? How many units have you sold and what was the highest selling price? What's your favourite of the pieces featured on these pages? Where are you trying to take this whole thing? Return To Top |
MIX Magazine Winter 2004
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MIX GalleryName: Joey DAMMIT! Age: A lady never tells Homebase: Toronto Education: Graphic Design and Advertising Diploma, Humber College, Toronto Artist Statement: "Technicolour chaos" is my favourite way to describe my art. I love a chaotic, in-your-face mishmash, an explosion of images and colour. I believe Zeitgeist surrounds us. The dial of the world and our lives is set to "Overkill." This chaos is conveyed through my love of Pop culture: larger- than-life icons, celebrities, historical figures, comic-book heroes-it's all there. My work has been described as "Warhol in a head-on collision with David Lynch." Perfect. If you're looking for something deeper, there's always the ocean. Mantra: Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds-Albert Einstein What was your worst artistic experience? That would have to be all the trouble a 6' x 6' painting of mine caused me. I had to take it to a gallery, but it was too large to fit in a regular van, and I couldn't afford a cube van at the time. So, a friend of mine and I decided to tie it to the roof of his station wagon. We got into the car and proceeded to drive away. Can you say "disaster"? It was like having a giant kite on the roof of the car-as we drove, it wanted to fly away! On one of the coldest days of the year, we had to hold it down with our hands outside the car's windows. My friend was driving with one hand while holding one corner, while I held the other corner from the passenger's side, as we drove clear across the city with our hands almost frostbitten. Horrible! Since then, I've turned to using smaller canvases. What's Next? I've had two major shows in the last eight months, and the creative well is dry. I'm going to take some badly needed time off to replenish and, at the same time, start doing some research on galleries outside the country. First we take Manhattan... Return To Top |
OCEAN DRIVE March/April 2001
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Pop PowerWhen artist Joey DAMMIT! was a little boy he wanted to be Darren Stephens. How else could he be married to Bewitched's sexy Samantha? This obsession with pop culture has manifested itself over the years, culminating in an artist whose work screams contemporary scene. A walk through DAMMIT's studio and you're greeted with a floor-to-ceiling wall of videos, a mountain of music, heaps of books and, of course, assaulted by a myriad of multi-coloured, multi-media works of art currently under way. DAMMIT!'s got more energy than a nuclear reactor, and the intensity of his artwork reflects the cultural overload of the landscape we live in. Only DAMMIT!'s able to take the cacophony of sound, image and information and translate it all into brilliant, frequently funny, occasionally frightening and always fascinating works of contemporary art. The Toronto artist has made his name in collage. A particularly arresting piece entitled "All Good Catholic Boys Wake Up Screaming" focuses on the central figure of the Virgin Mary. Surrounding Mary are shellacked shreds of newspaper articles, a manipulated photo of Samuel Beckett, bits of actual crosses and plastic babies, and even some scrawled poetry of W.B. Yeats. This isn't art for the weak. It's loaded with literary, religious and contemporary iconography. It insists that you shift between centuries. This is work that demands your full attention and interactivity. DAMMIT! sees the role of the artist in much the same way he pursues his work. To DAMMIT!, art isn't solely about painting. It's about consistently creating and maintaining a major buzz. On the morning of a show, he's up at 5 a.m., papering the city with posters. He vigilantly sends out packages to press promoting his past work and upcoming exhibits. This guy is an indefatigable, one-man hype machine. The dynamic Joey Dammit is most definitely a Canadian artist to watch. (Cathleen Bond) Return To Top |
LOLA Magazine Summer 2000
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Review"Glamour Is A Rocky Road" at John Steinberg & Associates Studio, Feb. 6 thru April 1, 2002 Joey DAMMIT! openings used to be about spectacle. You'd have to dodge fire-eaters and burlesque dancers to get to the chips and dips, while his collages threw a mass of images and icons defiantly in your face. Now there's rare roast beef and a camera crew prowling around. Has time finally caught up to Joey D!? Maturity suits him. There's still his painting of a pope screaming in the back room, but the main space is dominated by lovely divas, the central motif of his show. "Twiggy," "Rita Hayworth Gave Good Face," and "Jackie Oh!" stare out from large canvases, faces calm and beautiful. But look closer and you'll see the blood spattering Jackie's face. It is something to behold: polished and restrained and all whispering darkness. Return To Top |
Toronto Life FASHION April 2000
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JOEY DAMMIT!"Collagist Mixes A Mean Pallette." First the name---he was known as Joseph Alberto Defreitas until the day he autographed a college assignment "designed by Joey, dammit!" and the public persona of Joey DAMMIT! was born. DAMMIT! is as well known for his opening-night parties as for his edgy, darkly funny collages and paintings-and it's a formula that works. DAMMIT! has been voted Now magazine's most popular artist two years running. His most recent show at the Anoush Gallery with photographer Laurence Laberge (a.k.a. Jellybean) pushed things even further. The night included a dominatrix at the door and a burlesque show at midnight. Titled Circus Sexus Maximus, the show was about "the media perception of sex, which has nothing to do with real life," DAMMIT! says. "It's sex as vaudeville. DAMMIT! studied graphic design at Humber College, but he lasted only three months in a design job before quitting out of boredom and frustration. For Christmas 1993, he was given the Griffin & Sabine trilogy by Nick Bantock. "It was a revelation," he says. Collage has marked his work ever since. His art reflects his conversation, which always covers the same themes: media, sex and religion. His family came to Canada from Maidera, Portugal, when DAMMIT! was four, and his parents still have a difficult time accepting his art. Appropriately enough, the media may bring them around: "They see me on TV and start to think I'm not wasting my life." DAMMIT! is now working on a line of rather disturbing greeting cards and a Bantock-like book about one man's obsession with Winona Ryder. "I once read that the meaning of life is to do something you love so much that you'd do it for free, but get paid handsomely for it. I'm not there yet, but I do love it. Watching a blank canvas fill up is the most thrilling thing in the world." (Erin Curtin) Return To Top |