We Shall: Photographs by Paul D’Amato

In celebration of the new art season Stephen Daiter Gallery is excited to present Paul D’Amato’s most recent body of work entitled We Shall.  This is our second solo exhibition for D’Amato a highly regarded artist and professor at Columbia College.  We Shall is a candid and collaborative survey of the inhabitants and domiciles of Chicago’s West Side neighborhoods – comprised of intimate street portraits, selective interior scenes and photographs depicting the minutia of everyday life.

The people D’Amato photographs in these classically composed portraits appear poised and sometimes strained, yet D’Amato captures a quiet beauty and sense of immediacy within each moment.  There is an underlying psychological tension which radiates throughout the images of abandoned rooms and discarded possessions glowing in the late afternoon sunlight which is at times breathtaking and also jarring. We Shall is a continuation of several bodies of work D’Amato’s has made regarding the notions of community over the past twenty years: his project and book, Barrio: Photographs from Chicago’s Pilsen and Little Village and series’ Men’s Club preceded this.