Location : United States
Mid-Western artist, Daniel Rustad, (b.1962) makes paintings, drawings and mixed media artworks. By applying abstraction, Rustad investigates the dynamics of automatistic artworks, including the manipulation of its medium's effects and its limits based on our assumptions of what randomness means to us. Rather than presenting a factual reality, he uses illusion that is fabricated to conjure the realms of our imagination.

His paintings establish a link between reality and that imagined by its conceiver. These works focus on concrete questions that determine our existence. By exploring these concepts in an expressive way, he creates intense personal moments masterfully created by means of blended colors, textures, and, unique gestures that ultimately lure the viewer into his varied pieces.

His works are an investigation into representations of (seemingly) concrete situations as well as depictions and ideas that can only be realized in painting. With Plato’s allegory of the cave in mind, he makes work that deals with the documentation of events and the question of how they can be presented. His work expresses this with the help of the physical movement of his artworks rather than telling a story or creating a metaphor.

Needless to say, his work doesn’t always reference recognizable form. Therefore the results are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and possible interpretation becomes multifaceted.