Danja Akulin

Drawing as the main instrument, means of expression and the technical basis of Danja Akulin's artworks is simultaneously a way of creating images and their visual content. The artist creates black-and-white compositions in monochrome, with graphite and pencil on paper mounted on canvas, or with charcoal on canvas, deliberately choosing a laconic language of drawing as an instrument that makes it possible to convey the idea of the image in the most concentrated and pure form. Symbols and signs intersect with iconic landscapes, fragments, and elements of nature at the level of perceptions and meanings. The mystical images of the nature are being created in the subtle balance between a line and a brush-painted surface, between “recording” the trajectory of a gesture and working with a plane, with a painterly representation of space. Graphite and charcoal, depending on the vision of the artist, are changing their character, plasticity, and energy component.

White color as a visible objectification of the light takes the lead in his black-and-white images. It is being disclosed in each work to a different extent, still it gives the main image an opportunity to exist revealing its idea and forming the structure. Light is perceived as the main actor, as the root cause and the main mystical source of the existence.

Accepting the invitation to take a walk in the monochrome spaces of Danja Akulin's works, a viewer experiences their hypnotic effect, teetering on the verge of half dream and half reality, in the space of half-shades, finding a way between vague or sharp outlines of depicted objects, and discovers sublime moments in the most simple and unsophisticated.

Born in 1977 in Saint-Petersburg (USSR), Danja Akulin lives and works in Berlin (DE) since 2000. He studied at the University of Arts of Berlin (UdK) at the Department of Fine Arts (2000 -2005, Prof. Georg Baselitz), where he has completed his Advanced MFA (2005 -2006, Prof. Daniel Richter). His works were exhibited extensively since 2002, in 2017 the artist was granted Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award.

Selected solo exhibitions include among others:

In Darkness Let Me Dwell, Bark Berlin Gallery, Berlin (DE), 2023, Between the Lines, Artbrige Gallery, Berlin, (DE), Between the Lines, In-Gate Gallery, Brussels (BE), 2022, Penumbra, new works, J.J.Heckenhauer Gallery, Munich (DE), 2021, Art on Paper New York, with Elipsis Art, New York (USA), 2020, Rock Hard Sea, Bark Gallery, Berlin (DE), 2020, Penumbra, Erarta Museum, St. Petersburg (RU), 2019, Art on Paper Brussels (2018), Charcoal on Canvas, Mimi Ferzt Gallery, New York(USA), 2013, Art Karlsruhe ,2013, Penumbra, Erarta Gallery, London (UK), 2012.

Selected group exhibitions include among others:

Das Ende der Malerei. Karl Hagemeister und die Malerei heute, Bröhan-Museum, Berlin (DE), 2023, 50/50: The Matter of Duality, Paul- Fleischmann- Haus, Berlin (DE), 2020, Preparing for Darkness vol. 4: True Romance, Kühlhaus, Berlin (DE), 2019, Erinnern-treümen-zeichnen, Poll Gallery (Berlin, Germany), 2019, A Sign of Nature, W Gallery, Osnabrück (DE), 2019, Kunst und Filmbiennale Worpswede 2018, Worpswede (DE), 2018, Shadow, Thielbeer.Art & Holger Kuhn Fine Arts, Berlin(DE), Preparing for Darkness, Kühlhaus (Berlin, Germany) Salon Nr. 2, Christine Knauber Gallery, Berlin (DE), 2018, Salon der Gegenwart, Catalog, Hamburg (DE), This is The Sea, Fano Kunstmuseum, Catalog, Fano (DK).

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