William Daniels is known for his tromp l’oeil recreations in oil paint of iconic historical works. However, his latest solo show steps away from this practice to explore a new path. Whereas once Daniels would model a reproduction of a celebrated painting in a relief made of, say, tin foil, now he simply makes a non-referential, non-objective   aluminum, cardboard or paper setup which is photographed and then painted.  On panels, they are highly intricate renderings of the shapes and colors reflected in and created by the folds of the foil. There are two rooms housing something between  four to six paintings each, all untitled, all the same size–very small at about eleven inches square.

Yet each work becomes a monument on the wall it occupies—a monumental piece of tiny intricacy, perhaps even a commentary on the blankness of the wall itself.  Each piece is a wonder of astounding color and shape relationships, revealed through careful and extensive examination. Every square inch is afforded the same attention as the next.  This endless array alone makes the work appealing.  The colors seem to emerge from another, unknown dimension, expressing the fact that they have been observed, not directly but through reflection.  They are richly otherworldly.  This spectral quality is enhanced by a kind of  “missing twin” effect.  Knowing that the paintings are based on maquettes, the viewer  does double duty, first in apprehending the painstaking painted facsimile, then in trying to imagine the absent model.

Works of the Cubists, such as Picasso’s “Demoiselles D’Avignon” or Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase” come to mind and all the paintings invoke Cubist qualities.  But the paradox is that Daniels is in fact painting Cubism directly.  That is, the multiple viewpoints beloved of cubism are achieved through the planes and folds of the maquette and its shiny reflective surface, while the artist paints this “Cubist” array from a Renaissance single-point perspective.  Whatever  conceptual  trompe l’oeil is thus deployed, it is certain that the staggering depth and intricacy of the painted trompe l’oeil leads the viewer down new paths of color and shape.

Greg Lofthouse