Daniel Knorr’s abstract, conceptual works are grounded in appropriating reality and reformulating it in a variety of
artistic processes, molding it to fit each new situation. While Knorr’s conceptual approach may take a critical
stance toward society, it never leads to dry, preachy discourses, leaving the materialization of an idea to generate
alluring, aesthetic results instead.
Canvas Sculptures
Derived from the Depression Elevations series, the Canvas Sculptures add a new dimension to the work
of the artist and the painting practice. Paint is the ephemera of a work of art on canvas. It is the layer that
incorporates the genius of the artist, the part that needs the canvas as support to fascinate and take over our
minds and souls. The development in the work of Daniel Knorr is the physical and intellectual liberation of paint
from the canvas, from its classical source as a painting.
The work of the artist starts in the studio by molding the surface of the canvas texture. Like that, Knorr gets the
canvas structure on silicone and starts painting on it. After the painting is done, the artist pours clear and
colored resin over the silicone canvas. After the resin cures, it gets pulled off, pushed together and crunched by
the artist, creating a three-dimensional structure of the painting.
Inspired by modernist paintings, the artist combines different art-historical moments and genres. Minimalism
represented the serial division and industrialization of natural resources in the 60s and in Europe the Nouveau
Réalisme introduced a new perception of the reality, of the environment in general. We live in a time of
materialization and serial reproduction, where classic art is massively industrialized, taking shapes of computer
paintings, wallpapers, tablecloths, shower curtains, etc. just to name a few. The canvas sculptures of Daniel Knorr
are a reaction to an industrial moment of materialization of culture, creating a new layer and dimension for the
artistic practice of painting.