Jimi Dams

Who is Jimi Dams?

Jimi Dams is a Belgian contemporary artist who was born in Mortsel, Belgium. He began drawing when he was young, and at age 14 he went to classes at the Royal Academy in Antwerp and graduated at 21 in Brussels. His friendship with British post-punk ballet dancer Michael Clark led to a series of drawings and lino-cuts that explored movement. The whole series, including portraits Dams made of Clark, were shown in a solo exhibition at Harrods, London in 1987. Suffocated by the “pseudo-intellectualism” and the “polit-buro of art,” Dams fled Belgium to exhibit with Galerie Oz in Paris in 1993 and was quickly picked up by galleries such as Gracie Mansion in New York and Torch in Amsterdam. He later found kindred spirits in Belgium and has since then joined them to successfully offer a counterbalance to the Belgian art world’s “one-track thinking.”

His career also includes flamboyant performances at Live Stock Market in London, honoring his friend Joshua Compston's legacy, curating exhibitions for museums in Belgium and the U.S. and advocating the work of fellow artists. Much like his longtime friend and fellow artist Amanda Lear, Dams is veiled in mystery. A notorious recluse, he prefers to work in intimate circles.