My Story

“Like my life, my work should not be stagnant while embracing the beauty of imperfection. Pencil, paint, camera.”

Daniel Stern defines himself as a “mark-maker” who blurs the line between painting and drawing. He executes a process of constructing and deconstructing the surface with layers of information over various grounds with focused attention to each mark and each layer of information. Through this "process" of building, erasing, and replicating the immediacy he achieves from creating his smaller abstract works; (stapled, glued and taped vignettes of collages and drawings on paper and mylar), Daniel can ‘figure things out’.

Daniel is a visual artist with a Neurological Disability (MS) diagnosed in 1997 that led to a journey of meditation and self-discovery and onward to a re-invention to adapt and embrace the disease and its impact to “Self”, as a result Daniel discovered a true-self, an Ikigai; a purpose. As a result, revealing the “beauty of imperfection” both visually and philosophically. These themes pervade his work.

Daniel has kept his art practice private for the last 30 years while earning an income from a software sales career. Despite his success, his sales position was eliminated in the early stages of the pandemic. Daniel saw this as a gift to embrace his lifelong passion and focus on his art practice. He is presently seeking Gallery representation while selling his work privately.

When not in the studio, he is a passionate photographer who earned a stipend and exhibition for his street photography series "Your Other Self" in 2016. Above all, he is a very proud father of a magical daughter.

Born in Passaic, NJ USA

Grants

2016-2017 Arts Unbound Art Garden CSA Stipend

Group Exhibitions

2017 Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, USA

2017 Arts Unbound Orange, , New Jersey, USA

Workshops and Related Education

School of Visual Arts

National Academy School of Fine Arts

New School: Parsons, Visiting Artist Summer Program with Pat Steir, Gary Stephan, Judy Pfaff and Bill Jensen.