Damien Drake is a New York artist focused on one thing: people…stripped down, built back up in paint.

His portraits aren’t just likenesses. They’re confrontations. Using heavy palette knife work and layered texture, Drake carves faces out of paint that are raw, imperfect, and alive.

Some pieces start with his own photography, others from legendary images, but all of them land in the same place: somewhere between realism and something harder to define.  His subjects feel pulled from a moment just before or just after something happens. There’s tension in the stillness.

Using palette knife work and layered textures, he builds surfaces that are as physical as they are emotional.  Paint that doesn’t just describe a face, but holds weight, memory, and friction. The result is portraiture that feels lived-in, not observed.

Outside the studio, Drake has spent over 15 years in the live art world, performing across New York City and throughout Europe under his alter ego “Too Tall,” bringing the act of creation into real time.

Before all of this, he was interviewing legends for VH1 Classic getting face time with Stevie Nicks, Michael Stipe, B.B. King, Willie Nelson and hundreds more. Those moments didn’t end when the cameras cut…they became paintings.

For commissions and acquisitions, contact directly.