Le Bas completed an MA at the Royal College of Art, London, where he met his future wife and lifelong artistic collaborator, Delaine Le Bas. The couple settled in West Sussex and worked together for decades, producing collaborative installations that toured internationally. His work was characterized by an all-over compositional energy, heavy black line work, and an irreverent humor that balanced the weight of its subjects — displacement, discrimination, borders, and Romani identity.
Among his signature bodies of work are his painted map and globe series, in which found vintage cartographic objects became canvases for his own Romani geography, erasing national borders and repopulating the world with his alter-ego figures and cultural symbols. As he stated: "Gypsy Europa is my dream… My maps are subversive imaginary conquest, a Roma resistance against racism and right-wing propaganda."
Selected Exhibitions
Solo and two-person exhibitions include Frontier De Luxe at Galerie Kai Dikhas, Berlin (2016); Gypsyland with Gabi Jiménez, Kai Dikhas Gallery, Berlin (2012); Damian Le Bas at Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix, London (2023, posthumous); and Cartographer of a Fifth Dimension at Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix, London (2025, posthumous). Group and biennale exhibitions include the Paradise Lost Roma Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007); Prague Biennale (2005, 2007); Kunsthalle Kallio, Helsinki (2012); RomaMoMA at documenta 15, Kassel (2022); Eurasia at Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerp (2022); Barvalo at MUCEM, Marseille (2023); The House of Le Bas at Whitechapel Gallery, London (2023); and Who We Are at Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2023–ongoing). He collaborated extensively with Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, producing the stage drape for Roma Armee (2017). He also initiated the Roma Biennale, dedicated to Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller art, which came to fruition posthumously in Berlin in 2018.
Institutional Holdings
Works by Le Bas are held in the Musgrave-Kinley Outsider Art Collection (from 1987); the collection of Perpetuum Mobile; and the Kai Dikhas Foundation, Berlin, where he holds a central position in both the collection and the program. His estate is currently represented by Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix, London.
Delaine Le Bas
Damian Le Bas's wife, Delaine Le Bas (b. 1965, Worthing, UK), is an internationally recognized artist in her own right, working across textiles, performance, film, embroidery, and installation. She completed an MA in Fashion and Textiles at Central Saint Martins, London. Her work explores identity, gender, and belonging through the lens of Romani Gypsy experience, and she has exhibited at venues including the Venice Biennale Roma Pavilion (2007, 2019), the 11th Berlin Biennale (2020), Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin, and internationally across Europe, the United States, and Asia. She was nominated for the 2024 Turner Prize for her solo presentation Incipit Vita Nova at Secession, Vienna — one of the most prestigious nominations in British contemporary art. She continues to steward Damian Le Bas's legacy and estate.
