The Beauty in Banality

 

My work has mainly been about the landscape, focusing primarily upon the urban environment. I was initially drawn to the gasometers and tower blocks that populated the area I grew up in around southwest London

The paintings has evolved from a pictorial landscape tradition, working directly from observation and referencing the work of the Euston Road School, the photographs of Bernd and Hilla Becher, and the paintings of Edward Hopper.

My recent paintings use a number of themes as a starting point

Recording the city from high and oblique vantage points and making work that hovers between abstraction and figuration.

Using photographs taken in low light reconciles my desire to make work using a personal colour palette but creating paintings with believable space and forms that the viewer can project their own personal experience into.

Returning to drawing directly from observation has helped me acquire a more conceptual aspect to the work. I seek out the beauty in banality and the absurd juxtapositions of the city. I am trying to fashion together disparate pictorial influences into a coherent painted surface.

Ultimately I want to express the excitement and dynamism of the city while encouraging the viewer to consider the urban environment differently. I hope to lead them to reassess their daily surroundings with a different eye.

Daniel Preece 2008

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2008 Solo Show Gillions Art, Battersea, London

2006 Solo Show, Slade Summer School, University College London

1999 Fox Williams, Solicitors, London

1998 Solo Show, Slade Gallery, University College London

1994 Solo Show, Slade Summer School, University College London

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2008 Small is Beautiful, Flowers East, London

2008 Small is Beautiful, Flowers East, London

2008 Mauger Gallery, Bath

2006-08 London Group

2007 Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Gallery, London

2006 ‘Altitude' John Martin at Ashursts, London

2006 Small is Beautiful, Flowers Central, Cork Street

2005 Hunting Prize Exhibition, Royal College of Art

2004 ‘Subjective' Sarah Myerscough Fine Art

2004 C.A.S Artfutures, City of London School

2003 ‘Recent Acquisitions Show', Unilever Building, London

2002 ‘Five New Artists', Purdy Hicks Gallery, Bankside, London

2001 ‘Urban Rhythms', Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London

2001 Laing Landscape and Seascape Award, Mall Galleries, London

1998 Group Show as part of the Gilchrist Fischer Memorial Award, Cadogan Contemporary,

 

STUDIES 

2006-07 Prince's Drawing School, London E1 Drawing Year

1989-93 Slade School of Fine Art, London, WC1 BA (Hons) Fine Art

1988-89 Chelsea School of Art, London, SW7 Foundation Course

 

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

2001 Runner up - Laing Landscape and Seascape Award

1998 Artist in Residence, Slade Summer School

1997 Second Prize - Gilchrist Fischer Memorial Award

1995 Boise Scholarship to travel and make work in America

1994 Stoves Award Winner

1994 Finalist - Gilchrist Fischer Memorial Award

1993 Henry Tonks Medal for Painting

1992 Slade Project Award to make paintings in North Wales

1991 Second Prize Slade Summer Competition

1990 William Coldstream Prize: Slade School of Fine Art

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2006 Elected to the London Group

2005 Commissioned to make a number of drawings for Ian Rowland's book on Drawing

2004 Commission for the offices of Topland Group

2003 Commission to make a painting of Stoke Court for Bayer plc

2002 Commission for the Canary Wharf Group

2000 Commission to make portrait of up coming actor Tom Hardy

1997 Worked in Paris and Burgundy, France on a number of commissions

1995-96 Lived and worked in the U.S.A.

1996 Lived and worked in Venice, Italy. Working as Gallery Manager/Steward at the Biennale for the British Council

1994 Assistant to artist Bruce McLean

1993 Made background painting of Venetian Sky for Michael Newton, photographer based on Claudes Seaport with the embarkation of St. Ursula

1992 Commissioned to make drawings for Ron Bowens Book ‘Drawing Masterclass'

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

April 04 Review in the Saturday Independent

05/04/01 ‘Sense of Place', Artist and Illustrator

20/01/98 Review by Andrew Taylor, The Independent

19/01/98 Review by John McEwen, The Sunday Telegraph

July 1994 Drawings reproduced in Artist and Illustrator

Jan 1994 Painting reproduced in Homes and Gardens

10/1/94 Review by John McEwen, The Sunday Telegraph

15/01/94 Review by William Packer, The Financial Times

10/12/93 Review by David Hammond, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

 

COLLECTIONS

Works in the collections of Bayer plc, Topland Group, Canary Wharf Group plc, Unilever plc, University College London, Peat Marwick Accountants, GMO Woolley,

Steven Drake Solicitors, Prentis, Donegan and Partners and Stoves, Liverpool.

Work also in Private Collections in Britain, America, France, Australia, and Hong Kong.