William Daniels is best known for his meticulous trompe l’oeil works depicting well known art historical paintings. He creates maquettes of the source paintings out of simple materials such as paper, cardboard or silver foil which then serve as models for highly detailed facsimiles in oil paint. Recognizable, but pared down and muted in tone, the small-scale paintings are at once a still-life and a rendering of the original artwork, calling into question issues of representation, documentation and authenticity. With his recent paintings, Daniels eschews source imagery and creates dioramas out of reflective foil which are entirely abstract. Keeping the basic form of the model consistent, Daniels plays with the colour of the surroundings in which it is placed to test the transformative effects of reflected light on the object. As such, looking across the paintings the object appears to shift between guises, moving from evoking the calmly undulating natural form in a landscape to the brazen and speedy flash of the carnivalesque. But although the set up is a construction, the light that decides the object is the natural unknown. The resulting painting marks the impossible threshold between the construct and the organic to become something not quite belonging to either pole.  This bouncing between the fabricated and the natural resonates strangely in the way that the reflected light shimmering on the foil already has the look of the brush mark that is bound to mimic it.

Daniels’ embraces contradictions – the real and the reflected, the modest and the monumental, the meticulous and the expressive – and in doing he explores the interstitial space whereby the autonomy of the painting may lie.

Lives and works in London

1976Born in Brighton, UK

2001 – 2003Royal College of Art

1996 – 1999Edinburgh Art College

Solo Exhibitions

2016Marc Foxx, Los Angeles

2014Vilma Gold, London

2013Luhring Augustine, New York

2011Marc Foxx, Los Angeles

2010Vilma Gold, London

2009Luhring Augustine, New York

2007Vilma Gold, London
Marc Foxx, Los Angeles

2005Vilma Gold, London
Marc Foxx, Los Angeles

Group Exhibitions (selected)

2017Caves Off-site, Melbourne, Australia (upcoming)

2014I Cheer a Dead Man's Sweetheart, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea

2013LA Figurazione Inevitable (Inevitable Figurations)curated by Marco Bazzini and Davide Ferri, Centro per l’arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato

2012Pale Ontology, Marc Foxx, Los Angeles
The Piano Lesson, Vilma Gold, London

2011Testing Ground 2011 | Time Scale, 176 Zabludowicz Collection, London Durchsichtige Dinge (Transparent Things), Kunstverein Freiburg, Freiburg

2010Big Minis, CAPC, Bordeaux
Newspeak: British Art Now, Saatchi Gallery, London
Edinburgh College of Art 250th Anniversary, ECA Sculpture Court
Mimesi Permanente. Una mostra su simulazione e realismo / Permanent Mimesis. An Exhibition on Realism and Simulation, GAM Galeria Civica d’Arte Moderne e Contemporanea, Turin

2009Newspeak: British Art Now, The State Hermitage Museum, St.Petersburg Dreaming the Mainstream, Vilma Gold, London
Jean-Luc Blanc, Opera Rock, curated by Alexis Valliant, CAPC, Bordeaux
60 Miles by Road or Rail, Fishmarket, Northampton

2008Perverted by Theater curated by Franklin Evans and Paul David Young, Apex Art
M25 Around London, CCA Andratx, Mallorca
Precious Things, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda
Summer show, Marc Foxx, Los Angeles
Zuordnungsprobleme, Johann Konig, Berlin
Legend, Domaine Departemental de Chamarande, Chamarande, France, curated by Alexis Vaillant
Dadadandy Boutique, Artprojx Space, London

2007Painted Objects, Harris Lieberman, New York
At Home at the Yvon Lambert Gallery, New York, curated by Mario Testino Size Matters, Hudson Centre for Contemporary Art, New York Counterfacture, Luhring Augustine, New York (cat)

2006Jerwood Contemporary Painters, Jerwood Space, London April is the Cruelest Month, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow

2005Waste Material, The Drawing Room, London (cat.)
The Darkest Hour, Leisure Club Mogadishni, Copenhagen
Young Masters, 148a St John Street, London

2004Death & Magic, Keith Talent Gallery, London
XS, FA Projects, London
Project 1, Alma Enterprises, London

2003Royal Academy Summer Show, Royal Academy of Arts, London

Selected Bibliography Publications

2011Dr. Johnstone Isobel, The Secret Confession, Edinburgh College of Art, 2010

2010Alessandro Rabottini, Permanent Mimisis, An Exhibition About Simulation And Realism, GAM
Galeria Civica d’Arte Moderne e Contemporanea, Turin

2009Vaillant, Alexis, ‘Jean Luc Blanc, Opera Rock’, CAPC Musee d’Art Contemporain de Bordeax,
exihibtion cat., Steinberg Press

2008‘William Daniels - Qu’est-ce Que La Peinture Aujourd’hui?’, Beaux Arts editions, ed. Claude
Pommereau,. pg.78 - 79

2007Werner Holzwarth, Hans, ‘Counterfacture’, Holzwarth Publishing, New York

2005Musgrove, David, ‘Waste Material’, The Drawing Room, exhibition cat., London
Morton, Tom, ‘William Daniels’, Frieze Art Fair Yearbook, Frieze Publishing

Articles

2011Phaidon’s Vitamin P2: New Perspectives in Painting, 2011
Knight, Christopher, Art review: William Daniels at Marc Foxx Gallery, LA Times Blog Online White, Josh, William Daniels, Flash Art, VOL XLIV, No. 276, January - February 2011, p.98

2010Wullschlager, Jackie, ‘Energised by Youthful Chaos’, FT Weekend, Saturday, October 16 2010, p.10
Wullschlager, Jackie, ‘Charles Saatchi’s ‘Newspeak’, Financial Times, June 4 2010
Sewell, Brian, ‘Is it Me or is Newspeak Good?’, The Evening Standard, June 3 2010
Januszak, Waldemar, ‘Entering a Whole New Headspace’, The Sunday Times, June 6 2010 Campbell-Johnson, Rachel, ‘Charles Saatchi and the New Art Generation’, Times Online, May 24, 2010
Glover, Michael, ‘As he Unveils the Next Generation of Artists, Has Charles Saatchi Lost His Edge?’ , The Independent,Friday 14 May 2010
Yablonsky, Linda, ‘Picture Generations New York’ , Artforum , 14 January 2010
Affronti, Fabrizio, ‘Grande Maestri, Fonte Perenne’, La Casana, March 2010, p. 27
Kerr, Merilly, ‘William Daniels Paintings’, Time Out New York, January 2010
Plagens, Peter, ‘Overwhelmed’, Art in America, No.3 March 2010, p.42

2009Rabottini, Alessandro, ‘Emerging Artists’, Frieze, issue 128, January-February, p.91

2008Dunne, Aidan, Precious Things, Irish Times, 1 October
Sumpter, Helen, Reviews: William Daniels, Vilma Gold, Timeout London, January

2007Williams, Gilda, William Daniels - Vilma Gold, Artforum, January
Alemani, Cecilia, Critics Picks, Artforum Online, January
Smith, Roberta, Art in Review, The New York Times, February 9
Falconer, Morgan, in on the House of Testino, South China Morning Post, August 5 William Daniels vit a Londres, Vogue Paris, February

2006Readings, Harpers Magazine, June
Herbert, Martin, William Daniels, Modern Painters, Jan-Feb
Ondak, Roman, The Return of Small Paintings, Bon Magazine, Summer

2005Bright Young Things: William Daniels, Art Review Vol. IX December, p. 70
Sumpter, Helen, William Daniels: Vilma Gold, Time Out London, November 2–9 Herbert, Martin, Emerging Artists: William Daniels, Modern Painters, January