Ep 129: Daniel Boyd

Click play for the podcast episode – you can also watch an edited video version of this episode on the TWP YouTube channel.

Most artists remember their first show. Maybe they were lucky enough to sell a few works, usually to family and friends. Daniel Boyd remembers his. It was in the year he graduated from university, 2005, but family and friends didn’t stand a chance. The entire exhibition was bought by the National Gallery of Australia.

Daniel describes himself in those university days in Canberra as ‘a shy young First Nations man from Far North Queensland’. That reserved nature still comes through even though I was speaking with him at the exhibition ‘Treasure Island’ which celebrates his career with over 80 works in one of Australia’s most important art institutions, the Art Gallery of NSW.

Daniel’s First Nations heritage is central to his work. His ancestors were part of the Stolen Generation. Forced to let go of their culture and language, they lived in fear that if they shared it with their children they would be taken away from them. In an interview in the Gallery’s Look magazine Daniel said that that forced withholding of culture meant that he always felt there was something missing and it was at university that he tried to make sense of that.

One of the striking aspects of Daniel’s work is the way he both reveals and obscures his subject. Using a pointillist technique, he places a multitude of translucent dots over the image creating a series of convex lenses, as he refers to them, and while you can see the image through these lenses the rest of the image is painted out.

Although this creates a visually alluring effect, there’s more to this technique than just the physical use of the material. There are concepts behind it which relate to ways of seeing and perception and which are interestingly explored in the book accompanying the exhibition (see link below).

The show has been curated by Isobel Parker Philip, Senior Curator of Contemporary Australian Art and Erin Vink, curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, both at the Art Gallery of NSW.

Daniel has exhibited in over 30 solo shows, has won the Bulgari Award amongst others, and his work is held in many other public institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and the Natural History Museum in London.

Click play beneath the above feature photo to hear the podcast episode watch the YouTube video of this edited conversation here.