Dana Blume (b.1993) is an American painter based in Seattle, WA. He earned his BFA in drawing and painting from California State University of Long Beach in 2019 and his MFA at the University of Washington in 2023.

“My paintings and drawings orbit around a shifting cast of surreal creatures, apparitions, and personifications engaged in morally ambiguous hijinks. These characters contain multitudes: sometimes they appear benevolent, other times they are engaged in destruction. Some of these characters and motifs do represent, or at least resemble, aspects of myself or others, but I do not consider my work to be biographical. That said, the absurd escapades these characters find themselves in are inevitably inspired by personal or universal human pitfalls that I want to analyze and interpret through painting.

My most current work utilizes the compositional structures of history painting as visual starting points for automatic drawings that become paintings. I have always been fascinated by the phenomenon of paradeolia: the human ability to see images and patterns in abstract phenomenon like clouds, tree bark, burnt toast… The complexity of history paintings lends itself to a breakdown of figuration, where large arrangements of figures turn into an abstract structure that I relate to clouds or piles. I like the idea of utilizing the visual complexity of something aimed at delivering tales of morality and heroism to produce non sense, to deliver no moral conclusions at all. There is something deeply optimistic to me about transforming a heroic image into something sluggish and distinctly unheroic. While there is obvious sarcasm about the western art-historical cannon present in my interpretations of these paintings, they are sincere excuses to observe and admire these works for their dedication to painting as a form.”

For all inquiries about available work, please email me at danablume12@gmail.com.