Daniel Unverricht | Sleeping Village : {Suite} Ponsonby

Daniel Unverricht’s exhibition 'Sleeping Village' wasn’t intended to be a comment on New Zealand’s Covid lockdown, but like many artists he subconsciously found the idea seeping into his latest body of work.

Daniel's painting has always featured ‘dramatically lit realism’, the derelict buildings and moody nocturnal streetscapes providing an eerie sense of the uninhabited. In some ways, practice has foreshadowed the reality of our local areas during New Zealand’s lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. As Daniel comments ‘maybe my paintings have always had that isolational/locked down aspect, it's just distilled a bit more now.’

Taking inspiration from local buildings in the Wairarapa where he resides, Daniel has always shone a light on the overlooked, undervalued and the disappearing. In this series, a new aspect has entered his work: a daytime setting and deliberate attempt to invoke optimism after a difficult few years.