Daniel Unverricht

Daniel Unverricht lives and works in Carterton, New Zealand. A graduate of the Eastern Institute of Technology, Unverricht went on to complete his Masters at Elam School of Fine Arts in 2003.

Born and bred in Hastings, much of Unverricht's oeuvre portrays night-time scenes of a small town: abandoned backlots, derelict streets, and shopfronts with shutters rolled down against the night. His paintings explore environs bereft of inhabitants and instead populated by darkness and lingering sense of threat. While masterful at rendering light, Unverricht makes no attempt to alleviate the gloom nor add any warmth. Empty roads are punctuated only by the waning glow of lone streetlights, factories lit with a cloying blaze of steam, and house fronts illuminated from beyond the picture space by an unknown source.

Though various cities have featured in Unverricht's body of work, his hometown is the locale which he most commonly returns to; the city often rendered a deserted no-man's land. "Something has gone down or is about to go down, and you're there and have to navigate that space," he says.