Dominique Knowles’ archetypal images form an incredibly specific expression of interspecies companionship. Born from a seemingly private language, they appear to reveal a form of primordial knowledge built from the fluid movement of unbounded rhythm. Epic in scale, his pulsating and alive aesthetic acts as a soft ground for a central figure of luminously erotic queer desire. Romantic longing nourishes these artworks, rife with humane and animal grief. Through his alchemy, Knowles breathes prenatal warmth into his canvases, contemplating no less than the nature of life itself.

Dominique Knowles was born in 1996 in the Bahamas and lives in Paris, France. He received his BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, IL (2017, 2020).

He has mounted solo exhibitions at Chapter NY in New York City, NY (2022); Layr in Vienna, Austria (2021); Soccer Club Club in Chicago, IL (2020); The Green Gallery East in Milwaukee, WI (2019); and The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas in Nassau, The Bahamas (2017).

His work has also been featured in group exhibitions such as The Animal Within– Creatures in (and outside) the mumok Collection at mumok in Vienna, Austria (2022); that other world, the world of the teapot tenderness, a model at Kestner Gesellschaft in Hanover, Germany (2022); Portals at Misako & Rosen in Tokyo, Japan (2022); Alchemy & Cosmology at Fortnite Institute in New York City, NY (2022); and Fifteen Painters at Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York City, NY (2021) among others.

Knowles’ work has been written about in various publications, including Frieze (2021), PW Magazine (2021), Spike Art Magazine (2020), New American Paintings (2020), and The Chicago Tribune (2017).