Damian Stamer: Angels & Ghosts
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Curated by Dexter Wimberly, this exhibition presents a continuation of artist Damian Stamer’s acclaimed Collaboration Series, featuring evocative oil paintings that emerge from an artistic partnership between human creativity and artificial intelligence.
Born in 1982 in Durham, North Carolina, where he continues to live and work, Damian Stamer explores the intricacies of time, memory, and existence through his paintings. His work addresses fundamental questions about what it means to remember, create, and be human, offering reflections on our relationship with technology and its impact on our perception of self and the world.
In Angels & Ghosts, Stamer collaborates with the AI image generator DALL·E 2 to create paintings rooted in memories of his childhood. Through this process, he has discovered that occasionally—perhaps one in hundreds of generations—the AI produces images that mysteriously contain angelic and ghostlike forms, despite receiving no explicit prompts to include such spectral elements. These unexpected manifestations serve as catalysts for exploring memory, belief, and the complex relationship between technology and artistic expression. “My first angel appeared over two years ago and I have been working on these paintings intensely ever since. After many solitary hours in the studio, I am excited to share this series with the Middlebury community and the world,” says Stamer.
The exhibition draws compelling parallels to Spirit Photography, a phenomenon popular in the late 19th century when supposed images of ghosts were captured on film. Just as Spirit Photography emerged during post-Civil War upheaval—when society grappled with loss and new technologies—Stamer’s work mirrors our contemporary moment of tension about the swift rise of AI. The series invites viewers to contemplate the nature of belief and faith in an age where technology both fascinates and unsettles us.
Stamer’s artistic approach combines traditional oil painting techniques with AI imagery. He begins by inputting semi-autobiographical prompts into DALL·E 2, such as: “My photographic childhood memory exploring the bedroom of an abandoned rural North Carolina house filled with old junk.” Without explicitly mentioning spectral elements, the AI produces images imbued with ethereal, ghostlike qualities that Stamer translates onto linen through meticulous and bold brushwork.
Focusing on interior spaces, the resulting paintings present ghostly figures and angelic forms emerging within abandoned rooms and cluttered spaces. These haunting domestic scenes encourage viewers to look deeper and engage with the works on multiple levels, discovering hidden narratives within familiar yet unsettling environments.
By collaborating with an AI that occasionally introduces unprompted spectral imagery, Stamer raises provocative questions about authorship, intention, and the role of chance in the creative process. His methodical sifting through countless AI-generated images to find these elusive angelic forms echoes ghost hunting and paranormal research, reflecting the enduring human quest to understand the unseen. “By exploring themes of human creativity, curiosity, faith, and skepticism, Angels & Ghosts taps into our current technological and social moment,” states exhibition curator, Dexter Wimberly.
The exhibition encapsulates the tension between fear and faith in artificial intelligence. While AI offers unprecedented opportunities for innovation, it also raises ethical concerns and existential questions. Stamer’s work uses AI not merely as a tool but as a true collaborator that brings its own unpredictability and “otherness” to the creative process.
Angels & Ghosts challenges viewers to reconsider the boundaries between human and machine creativity while exploring timeless themes of memory, mortality, and the search for meaning in an increasingly complex technological landscape. The exhibition offers a unique meditation on how we might navigate our relationship with AI as collaborative partners in the ongoing human story of creation and discovery.
About the Artist
Damian Stamer (b. 1982, Durham, NC) explores the intricacies of time, memory, and the transient nature of existence through his paintings. He addresses what it means to remember, to create, and to be human, offering a reflection on our relationship with technology and its impact on our perception of self and the world around us.
Stamer received his BFA from Arizona State University (2007) as a National Merit scholar and his MFA from UNC Chapel Hill (2013) as a Jacob K. Javitz fellow. He studied at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design (2006) as a Rotary Ambassadorial scholar and at the University of Fine Arts Budapest as a Fulbright grantee (2008). Solo and two-person museum shows of his work have been organized by the Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC (2023); and the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC (2016). Selected group exhibitions include State of the Art 2020, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Momentary, Bentonville, AR (2020); The Coffins of Paa Joe and the Pursuit of Happiness, Jack Shainman Gallery, The School, Kinderhook, NY (2017); The Things We Carry: Contemporary Art in the South, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC (2016); Area 919: Artists in the Triangle, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC (2015); Art on Paper Biennial, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC (2014).
Stamer’s work is in the permanent collections of Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, NC; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Kunstwerk Sammlung Klein, Eberdingen, Germany; Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC and North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC.
About the Curator
Dexter Wimberly is an American curator based in Japan who has organized exhibitions in galleries and institutions around the world including the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City; The Green Family Art Foundation in Dallas, Texas; The Harvey B. Gantt Center in Charlotte, North Carolina; KOKI Arts and STANDING PINE in Tokyo, Japan; BODE in Berlin, Germany; Lehmann Maupin in London, U.K.; SECCI in Milan, Italy; and The Third Line in Dubai, UAE. His exhibitions have been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times and Artforum; and have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and The Kinkade Family Foundation. In 2023, Wimberly participated in Hauser & Wirth’s International Curatorial Residency Symposium in Somerset, England. Wimberly has been profiled in Elle Decor and Artnet News. Wimberly is a Senior Critic at New York Academy of Art, and the founder and director of the Hayama Artist Residency in Japan.