Damon Freed (born 1978) is a Missouri-based painter who moves between nonobjective abstraction and painting from nature. He lives and works in Sedalia, where he has shared a studio with his father, the painter Douglass Freed. He received a B.F.A. with honors from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in 2003 and an M.F.A. from Hunter College, New York, in 2006.
His Inner Chapters series, begun in 2006, sets grey forms built from thin layers of acrylic against matte black fields of Flashe. The title comes from the writings of Chuang Tzu, and Freed places the work in the Abstract Expressionist tradition. He has also made geometric paintings of grids, X marks and zigzags, and landscapes in acrylic and oil based on charcoal drawings made from nature, in color that is personal rather than naturalistic.
Freed has had eleven solo exhibitions at Bruno David Gallery since 2009, most recently The Inner Chapters (2024). Other solo exhibitions include Four Point Perspective at the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia (2014), and Cadence at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, Kansas City (2012). In New York he was included in The Wild Bunch, curated by Tim Rollins, at White Box (2003).
Writing runs parallel to his painting. He has published more than twenty books of poems and essays since 2017, among them Twonism (Thoughts, Essays, and Poems on Life and Art) and Twonism II (2024); Twonism is also the title of a current series of paintings. Spiralchemation (2026) sets out an ordering system for sixteen basic shapes and a system of color.
SELECTED WORKS
Damon Freed Inner Chapter III - Misshapen, 2006 Acrylic and oil on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed Inner Chapter IV - Obstacle and Void, 2006 Acrylic and Flashe on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed Inner Chapter II - Irresponsible, 2006 Acrylic and Flashe on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed Inner Chapter VI - Freedom Cage, 2006 Acrylic and Flashe on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed Inner Chapter V - Grey Girl, 2006 Acrylic and oil on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed Modern Spiritual, 2014 Oil and acrylic on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed Double Chroma, 2014 Acrylic and oil on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed Pretty Sturdy, 2015 Acrylic and Flashe on Arches watercolor paper 41 1/2 x 29 1/2 in. (105.4 x 74.9 cm)
Damon Freed Lyrical, 2015 Acrylic and Flashe on Arches watercolor paper 41 1/2 x 29 1/2 in. (105.4 x 74.9 cm)
Damon Freed The Physiology of Color, 2017 Acrylic on canvas 24 x 24 in. (61 x 61 cm)
Damon Freed Chromatic Neutrals, 2017 Acrylic on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed The American Flag, 2017 Oil on canvas 34 x 26 in. (86.4 x 66 cm)
Damon Freed Two Trees #1, 2017 Oil on canvas 72 x 48 in. (182.9 x 121.9 cm)
Damon Freed Untitled #29, 2017 Oil on canvas 36 x 47 in. (91.4 x 121.9 cm)
Damon Freed Nature’s Providence, 2017 Oil on canvas 54 x 45 in. (137.2 x 114.3 cm)
Damon Freed Alignment, For Uncle Hal, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed On a Grand Mountaintop, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 46 x 46 in. (116.8 x 116.8 cm)
Damon Freed For Allowing Dreams To Come Forth, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 46 x 46 in. (116.8 x 116.8 cm)
Damon Freed The Spectral Wheel of colors-Moon, 2022–25 Acrylic on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed The Last Dandelion on Earth, 2021 Oil and acrylic on canvas 36 x 48 in. (91.4 x 121.9 cm)
Damon Freed ME, 2010 Acrylic on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed Angel, 2016 Oil and acrylic on canvas 34 x 34 in. (86.4 x 86.4 cm)
Damon Freed (Numbers, question mark), 2016 Oil and acrylic on canvas 34 x 34 in. (86.4 x 86.4 cm)
Damon Freed Infinity Shape, 2016 Oil and acrylic on canvas 34 x 34 in. (86.4 x 86.4 cm)
Damon Freed Unstretched, The Smoking Dragon, 2016 Acrylic and colored pencil on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed Unstretched, Inner Chapter-An Awesome Wave!, 2024 Acrylic and Flashe on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed Strategy & Intuition, 2022 Acrylic and Flashe on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed Inner Chapter XVII-Driftwood-Scholar’s Rock, 2022 Acrylic on canvas 32 x 64 in. (81.3 x 162.6 cm)
Damon Freed Inner Chapter-Magic Hats, 2020 Oil, acrylic, graphite on paper 60 1/2 x 40 1/4 in. (153.9 x 102.2 cm)
Damon Freed Inner Chapter-Striker, 2020 Oil and acrylic on canvas 60 1/2 x 40 1/4 in. (153.9 x 102.2 cm)
Damon Freed Inner Chapter-Midnight on the Terrace, 2020 Oil and acrylic on canvas
Damon Freed Inner Chapter XIV-Spider, 2016 Oil and acrylic on canvas 60 x 60 in. (152.4 x 152.4 cm)
Damon Freed Twonism XIX-Descending Swans, 2026 Oil and acrylic on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed Twonism XVIII-Ascending Pigeons, 2026 Oil and acrylic on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Damon Freed The Spirit, The Will, and The Wind, 2026 Oil and acrylic on canvas 82 x 82 in. (208.3 x 208.3 cm)
EXHIBITIONS
BRUNO DAVID GALLERY, ST. LOUIS
The Inner Chapters
Solo exhibition
12 April – 29 June 2024
DAUM MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, SEDALIA
Four Point Perspective
Solo exhibition
16 September – 16 December 2014
NEWS
PUBLICATION
Spiralchemation, a new book on shape, color and light
Book, 456 pages, May 2026
SOLO EXHIBITION
The Inspirations: Hang Them All!
P.E.O. Foundation Art Gallery, Cottey College, Nevada, Missouri, September 2024
TALK
Gallery talk with Gary Passanise, Damon Freed and Patricia Clark
Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, March 2018
PUBLICATIONS
SELECTED PRESS
FEATURE
Damon Freed profiled in the Sedalia Democrat
Sedalia Democrat, Faith Bemiss, June 2022
INTERVIEW
Interview with Damon Freed before his Landscapes exhibition
Central MO News, Andy Lyons, January 2017
FEATURE
Damon Freed and Douglass Freed in Missouri Life
Missouri Life, Martin Schwartz, December 2016
INTERVIEW
Video interview with Damon Freed
Mid-Missouri Art News, Rick Jey, June 2019