Daniel de Paula

Daniel de Paula (BR/NL) is a Brazilian visual artist and researcher. The multiple propositions of Daniel de Paula intend to reflect on the production of space as the reproduction of power dynamics, thus revealing critical investigations of the political, social, economic, historical and bureaucratic structures that shape places and relationships. Through a posture that is not imprisoned in the field of visual-arts, his work is informed by notions of human geography, geology, architecture,
and urbanism, thus revealing his interest in understanding the complex social form hidden within materiality. Through strategies such as extensive negotiations with public and private agencies, and the appropriation, displacement, and recontextualization of infrastructural objects and artifacts — in addition to interactions with agents that constitute the exhibition space and its surroundings— de Paula’s practice attempts to critically interrogate conditioned spatial systems. Such procedures end up emphasizing the indivisibility between the physicality of his works and the contexts from which they arise, reiterating the criticism to the violent socio-political vectors that inscribe meaning to our lives and the space around us.

Daniel de Paula has been awarded the Mondriaan Funds Proven Talent Award and has exhibited widely at institutions such as the Lyon Biennale; São Paulo Bienal; MASP, São Paulo; The Renaissance Society, Chicago; Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan; Kunsthal Gent; The Arts Club of Chicago; Estação Pinacoteca, São Paulo; and others. His work is represented by Galeria Jaqueline Martins, Francesca Minini Gallery, and Lumen Travo Gallery, and has been reviewed in Artforum, Texte zur Kunst, Flash Art, Mousse Magazine, Folha de São Paulo, and Het Parool. He has participated in several international artistic residencies such as the Jan van Eyck Academie, FLACC, and KIOSKO. Most recently he has released a monograph via Mousse Publications, alongside artists Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, on his ongoing project titled “deposition”.