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Daniel Nel was born in 1989 in Durban. He studied painting at Rhodes and graduated in 2013. Now living in Cape Town, his practice is based at Auckland Studios in Paarden Eiland.
Working mostly from reference material, Nel's paintings are characteristically flat, monochromatic, and etherial. His painterly articulation of environments as arrangements of shimmers and disappearances invoke psychogeographical, phenomenological and physical readings.
Nel is concerned with the power which space has over the human psyche, and the way this power is experienced and then stored in memory. For him making a painting is almost like a reverse version of this process, as well as a way of making sense of it. It acts as a form of thinking and communication which is different to written language. This process allows him to make statements which construct a simulation of the contents of the space which he can feel between himself and the multitude of sites "out there".
Education
2013 BFA Rhodes, 2 Distinctions
Solo exhibitions
2014 Glass, Open Plan Studios. Durbam
2018 Spell of Another, 99 Loop, Cape Town
Group exhibitions
2018 6.99, 99 Loop, Cape Town
2018 In To VIew, Ebony Curated, Cape Town
2017 Touch Emerging Painters, Turbine Art Fair
2016 Visual Acts, Raumerweiterungshulle, Berlin
2015 Paint It Black, Salon 91, Cape Town
2013 High-expectations 2, De Studio, Antwerp
2013 For Play ii, Underculture Contermporary, Port Elizabeth
2013 Sasol New Signatures
2012 High expectations, Stellenbosch School of Fine Art Main Gallery, Stellenbosch
2012 Sasol New Signatures
Awards
2013 Sasol New Signature Finalist
2012 Sasol New Signatures Finalist
2011 Investec Rhodes Top 100 Students