Paul Kyle Gallery is thrilled to present Amsterdam-based artist Daniel Mullen in his first major Canadian exhibition. Mullen describes himself as a “devoted craftsman”, who meticulously creates his works without digital or mechanical aid.
When you wake up tomorrow, imagine you could vividly see the sound of gentle raindrops cascading from the sky, falling in tainted silence, tumbling through rustling leaves, the sound of mournful cooing of a dove in the distance, interrupted by the abrupt cawing of a willful crow, and the sound of methodical lapping of tires on the wet asphalt of a passing car. They display a mirage of colours in front of your eyes, colours you have never been able to put words to, subtle colour variations you see in Daniel Mullen’s paintings.
Some of Mullen’s paintings are an exploration of his wife, filmmaker Lucy Cordes Engelman’s gift of conjoined sensory illusion called Synesthesia. By blending colour relationships with lines, Daniel Mullen arouses the viewer’s perception of space by employing an abstract language of lines and geometric shapes to create optical phenomena that appears kinetic or three-dimensional, these layered images of shapes appear to be either protruding or receding from an illusionary space. His works convey a kinetic energy that engages our eyes with the dynamism of his works, while bringing a tempered sense of structure and balance.
Paul Kyle, owner of Paul Kyle Gallery and gallerist for over four decades says that these works are passionate, inspiring paintings that demand engagement, and that they encompass what he personally seeks in art – beauty and elegance. He feels these works offer an opportunity for collectors to get in at an early stage of an already embraced internationally acknowledged artist. Daniel Mullen is rapidly gaining international prestige, from London to New York, recently having his first museum exhibition in Berlin, and a completely sold-out show in Sao Paulo this year. Mullen’s paintings are compared to Jesus Soto’s three-dimensional works, they reveal light ignited by inward desire, for they are paintings that explore the density of sparsity, of weightlessness, emptiness, and carry romantic notions of luminescence, rather than seeking for analogies of an abstract concept in the science of visual language.
Daniel Mullen: In a Realm of Luminescence
Daniel Mullen
September 28 - November 2, 2019