William Daniels is best known for meticulous trompe l'oeil works which depict famous art historical paintings. He constructs models of the source paintings out of materials such as paper, cardboard or aluminum foil which are photographed, and then recreated as painstakingly detailed facsimiles in oil paint. Recognizable, but pared down and muted in tone, the resulting small-scale paintings are at once a still-life and a faithful rendering of the original artwork. Both his process and his paintings explore issues of representation, documentation, authenticity and value. In his most recent body of work, Daniels eschews source imagery and creates aluminum foil dioramas which are entirely abstract. Each model is lit differently to achieve variations in palette and the resulting paintings are complex compositions of brilliant color and pure form.

William Daniels was born in Brighton in 1976 and studied at the Royal College of Art in London. Recent exhibitions of his work include the group exhibition Newspeak: British Art Now at The Saatchi Gallery in London and solo shows at Vilma Gold, London and Marc Foxx, Los Angeles. Daniels' work was first exhibited at Luhring Augustine in 2007 during Counterfacture, a group show of British artists that also included David Musgrave, Rupert Norfolk, and Alex Pollard. The artist currently lives and works in London, England.

For full CV, please download the PDF below:

Download PDF (49 K)