About

My initial experiments in painting were small works made from found materials: scrap wood panels, foil candy wrappers, second-hand tubes of paint. Inspired by these cast-off materials, I began to make larger works with leftover house paint, polyurethane and tar. As I applied them one over the other I developed an approach that built on the tension between the layers.  This tension is the central theme of my work, and in developing it I have sought to refine the interaction between the physical qualities of the materials and the manner in which I apply them.   

Initially, overwhelming the surface of a piece with texture produced a satisfying level of visual interest.  Yet as I observed the urban environment around me—the walls of an old tenement, a neglected billboard, the steel girders of an elevated train line—I found myself drawn to the visual appeal of surfaces that were the most worn down, rather than the most encrusted.   Seeking a more significant balance between creation and destruction in the textural surfaces that define my work I began to scrape away at the accumulated layers of material.  When partially exposed, previous layers achieved a palimpsestic quality, invigorating and elaborating the visual complexity of the surface.

Currently I use a flexible metal spatula to apply enamel paint, working methodically from left to right, building up layers which I then sand down with a power sander. The resulting surface is smooth, yet dense with textural nuance and emphasizes subtle variations of tone, sheen and opacity. Through this synthesis of additive and reductive techniques my paintings evoke the beauty of the conflict between our efforts to renew our surroundings and the futility of these efforts in the face of time and nature.

Thank you for your interest in my work. Please feel free to contact me at: ndanilczuk@gmail.com