Daniel Rich

Nice to see Daniel Rich talking about his upcoming book Windows & Mirrors on Alldayeveryday with Transmitter artist Benjamin Tiven.

Originally hailing from Germany, New York based artist Daniel Rich creates meticulous acrylic paintings of an empty, man-made world. Although completely devoid of human presence, his paintings are not without character. Rich chooses to celebrate the rich vibrancy and design of architectural structures, which appear smooth, intricate and appealing. The absence of people also brings out an eerie quiet and calm to what should be bustling urban cities. They are failed utopias- Rich’s ideas about what the future of human civilization could look like.

Carbon 12 is delighted to present the exhibition “On a Boat, Looking to Land”,  a curated exhibition showing the new works of Gil Heitor Cortesão and Daniel Rich. On the occasion of the upcoming show Liese Van Kerckhoven interviewed artist Daniel Rich. 

Daniel Rich, “Pyongyang ice skating rink” (2015) 

Your painting process is really precise and intense: layer after layer you deconstruct and reconstruct an image and even the colors are made/mixed by yourself. I could say ‘humanity’ isn’t there as figures in your paintings but in the hand of the painter. Is this physical intense process in the first place a visual choice or is there another reason too? 

My process developed from my background as a printmaker, which I studied in school, specifically screen printing and etching.  Looking back, skateboarding and painting graffiti, along with Robert Rauschenberg’s use of appropriated imagery such as newspaper clippings, screen printed photographs and found objects in his work had a big influence on me as a young artist.

I think conceptually, the visual language of schematic architectural and technical renderings is relevant to the way I work, which is more of a literal connection, but I am also referencing the graphic qualities of the print, television and online news media.  There is a certain ambivalence or documentary quality in the way that these places are represented - I am interested in calling that into question.

Additionally to the works on acrylic you are working on works on paper. Why did you choose for this addition of other material and technique? 

Working on paper with spray paint allows me to work through ideas much more fluidly than the very labor intensive acrylic paintings.  This lent itself especially well to “On a Boat, Looking to Land”, because after making a few works on paper, I began to notice that the architectural element of the staircase was popping up repeatedly, and after seeing Gil’s painting “Hall of Mirrors” drawing a connection to his work.

The painting technique of the works on paper is essentially the same as for the acrylic paintings. Spraying paint allows for more experimentation, and I enjoy blending and fading the colors into each other which results in a more atmospheric affect, a softer visual quality and a different psychological space within the images.

Daniel Rich, “Terraces” (2015)

You translate photos of architecture into paintings in order to invest the power of the picture to evoke larger social meanings and political intensions. How do you think your mediation as painter can form our perception on these physical structures by ‘reproducing’ these images?

Appropriating imagery is a tool that allows me to re-present an image by taking it out of context and deconstructing it and therefore calling its meaning into question.  The potential divergence and duality of images - the shifting of the significance and meaning in both images of places and the places themselves are what is interesting to me.

How important is it for the viewer to know the original image or context to understand the social and political layers behind the represented buildings and structures?

I think the simple documentary titles of my works are intended to give my paintings some initial context that might get the viewer thinking about why I am presenting a painting of an image for their consideration.  Often I do rely on an installation of multiple paintings to inform one another and to reflect meaning and questions back onto each other.

Sometimes, the building or place depicted in the painting is recognized by the viewer because of a personal connection, an interest in architecture, contemporary news events or a memory of seeing the building in person. But it is important to me that the work engages people visually first and hopefully this leads to a dialogue and further investigation into a subject.

How do you choose the images? For example for the paintings in the show ‘On a Boat, Looking to Land’: do they have something particular in common? 

For On a Boat, Looking to Land, I assembled a group of works that present the viewer with a more “psychological” space to contemplate as much as spaces that are politically charged.  Some of the works speak more to ideas about individuality such as “Villa Lobos”, “Stairwell, Chicago” and “Diving Tower”, and others speak more to a mass collectivity- “Chand Baori, India”, “Satellite Dishes” and “Terraces” for example.  Gil’s paintings of interior and exterior modernist structures and scenes were an inspiration for me to consider parallels in the images I was choosing.

 I’m very curious about the context behind ‘diving tower’, one of your works in the show. What is the story behind this work?

What drew me to “Diving Tower” initially was the potential to emphasize the psychological space within the image. The viewer projects him/ herself into the scene and is very much alone with the structure in the moment. The act of jumping off a diving tower calls for trust in oneself, commitment and self- reflection. In a way, this is what an artist goes through when they embark on a new work, a new project or exhibition.  This diving tower is located on a lake and built for pleasure- I enjoyed changing the time of day from the source image and transforming it into an eerie and uncanny scene that seems to be a part of a narrative and hopefully encourages the viewers imagination.

Daniel Rich, Diving Tower (2015)