Architectural art by Daniel Rich
Who are you and what is your art about?
I am a painter living and working in Berlin, Germany. My work primarily concerns itself with how history is transcribed and reflected in the built environment. I am interested in pictorial architectures ability to act as a signifier and to function as an icon of our lived experience, a portrait of an existential phenomenology whose features manifest where society is at one particular moment in history.
How did your artistic journey begin?
In response to 9/11, I began painting architecture for its ability to act as a signifier, its role as the backdrop to political ideology, and as a response to the rapidly unfolding events at the time. Paying close attention to the news and observing architecture in the photographs and television footage, led me to search for specific subjects, their respective stand ins, or alternate versions of the structures depicted and appearing in the news stories. I continue to make work along those parameters today.
Style & technique
I have been skateboarding since the late 1980’s. In retrospect my style has been heavily influenced by skateboard graphics of the 1980’s and 1990’s alongside the graphic language and use of color in graffiti. My interest in the built environment also stems from these influences. In art school I studied printmaking (mostly screen printing and intaglio) which led me to develop my painting process which relies on hand cut stencils, drawing, masking, and custom color mixing.
Personal objectives
My goal is to keep challenging myself and my viewers with the work that I make. I would like to get the viewer to spend just a little more time with my painting and thereby provoke some meaning and discourse. I attempt to draw the viewer in through craftsmanship and visual complexity.
Philosophy or advice
Be a good person, work hard, keep challenging yourself, support your friends and peers, give back, and don’t take the easy way out? I don’t really have a philosophy when it comes to art.
Would you like to add something?
As an artist I feel that I have a certain responsibility to react and respond to the times we live in through my work. I hope that my work can provoke discourse, a moment for reflection and quietude, but also a memorable visual experience for the viewer.
Daniel Rich ★ Artist resume
Daniel Rich was born in Ulm, Germany in 1977. After moving to the United States in 1996, he received his BFA from The Atlanta College of Art and an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University in 2004. Rich attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and has exhibited his work nationally and internationally in museums and galleries. He is represented by Miles McEnery Gallery, New York.
Thank you very much, Daniel.
Instagram: @drichski
Web: danielrich.net
