Daniel Unverricht | Shape of night: {Suite} Wellington

Daniel Unverricht’s latest body of work, Shape of Night, comprises a selection of nocturnal streetscapes and residential housing rendered in layers of oil paint on rough linen canvas.

Operating in a similar formal and conceptual space as most of his work, Shape of Night imagines a time-sick town: abandoned, derelict and caught in a perpetual state of night. As though this place has been shunted out of step with the rest of the world, it is devoid of any meaningful relationship to time and space. Circuitous backroads lead nowhere, interior spaces offer no shelter from the dark, and the dense night blanketing each composition gives no hint of ever lifting.

As the eye moves between each painting, the perspective shifts violently, placing the viewer uncomfortably close to a fenced off domicile, backing them into an abandoned backlot or drawing them down the unlit gravel road of an unidentified rural locale. Unverricht’s meticulous study in chiaroscuro, however, offsets feelings of unsettledness, inviting us to remain in the spaces described. Summoned by intrigue, the interplay of shadow and light lures audiences closer before disclosing the risk of being caught in the act of interloping or perhaps trespassing.