Paint, with Stickers
Introducing the Dom Chambers x Apply Set (Summer 2021)
At first blush Dom Chambers’ work would seem an unlikely fit for stickers. In fact, when we approached Dom about a possible creative collaboration, it hadn’t crossed his mind either. But what brought us together - a rising star painter & aspiring sticker brand - was a shared interest in pictures’ power as cultural symbols, anchors of identity, and broadening access to the history and ideas that they represent. What followed has been a delightful partnership, casting his work in new lights - but with the same energetic palette!
The subject of Dom’s work is Black intellectual life. Many of the figures he paints are friends from his community in New Haven, CT (he recently graduated from the Yale MFA program) where he lives and works. He portrays them in moments of repose - reading, looking out of windows, at leisure in the park and on porch stoops. Immersed in their own thoughts, Dom paints their psychological state with layers and shapes of color that refer to the history of abstract painting. What Dom shows is that color is a complex perceptual phenomenon intrinsic to theories of art and race.
As a creative empowerment brand, our mission is to give people tools to build a more vibrant world. The best stickers both aesthetically enable anyone to make things they’re proud of and offer associated concepts, frameworks, and stories that help shape the things people are inspired to make.
Partnering with Dom has been as much about broadening access to his extraordinary imagery, as his ideas. With After, After Albers, you can peel & rearrange stickers of Dom’s paintings into new compositions, experimenting with color, form, and pattern like an art school student. Pair these with the irregular vignettes found in All Kinds of Magic to build a larger landscape of his characters. Finally, use Dom’s favorite leaf-shaped motif in The Wash Stickers as a pattern for your stuff. Stickers are sneaky. Stickers are sneaky. Get your hands on a set of Dom’s, and before you know it, you’re not just getting to know an important young artist, but joyfully engaging with art history - and no doubt its future!
After, After Albers is a double reference to the work of Josef Albers (modern color theorist; painter; and teacher at the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College, and Yale School of Art) and to the 3x3 grid of images prominent on Instagram. All but one of the 9 pictures has an interior cut, doubling the total peels to enable experimental combinations of Dom’s paintings. Keep them together or spread them all over your stuff. Enjoy them on your own or give them to friends & family.
All Kinds of Magic celebrates Dom’s second body of work, Primary Magic, with vignettes of his figures & the enchanted worlds they inhabit. Upgrading the white borders of classic white vinyl stickers with contrasting color samples from other parts of his portfolio, each sticker glows. Add these moments of leisure to everyday surfaces of reflection (i.e. journals, notebooks, mirrors, laptops, etc) as reminders to take time for yourself. And when you do, enjoy it!
The Wash Stickers use a leaf-shaped element that repeats in Dom's work. We took this shape as the basis for a kiss cut sticker featuring Saint (It Feels like Yesterday), a recent Wash Painting of his. Each leaf frames a friend or character found elsewhere within his portfolio, as if making up an extended family tree. Use these beautiful accents on your own things or give one to a friend as an expression of love and friendship.
Dom’s paintings are unique, each literally one of a kind. Our stickers, however, give far more people the chance to own and experience each of these works. They’re printed in a limited edition hand-numbered run of 400 units, available individually & as a complete set. Whether you buy them to use or collect, enjoy giving Dom’s artistry new life in your world. As a special treat, Dom has also included 12 golden tickets throughout the sticker release. Each is a small painted gesture, like a one-of-a kind love note to his fans & collectors, new & old.