Interview With NEW Red Propeller Artist Daniel Lumbini

“I love painting in its rawest form, and am moved by the work of Jenny Saville, Alex Kanevsky and Oskar Kokoshka, but Picasso was the man as far as I’m concerned - a true pioneer, and that’s what I aspire to be; not like Picasso, but to rip up the rulebook completely and start again. I would say I’m more of a conceptual painter than an urban artist though, and am as inspired as much by the work of Dan Colen as I am by the likes of Bast, for example.

There’s nothing particularly profound about my painting however, despite my work having a slightly apocalyptic feel. I’m sure there’s some deep, underlying narrative in there somewhere, but I haven’t worked it out yet. I just like things that take me by surprise, so it’s important my own art does the same I guess. Mainly my work is accidental - I have highly functioning Aspergers and ADHD, so usually get bored and frustrated with painting quite quickly. That’s why I like the sudden impact collage can have; combining the two creates a raw mixture of chaos and the unexpected and also allows for much diversity within my practice. That’s exactly what happened with A Small Study of Someone You Don’t Know, it just happened instinctively and fired off all sorts of ideas. These small studies are effectively my versions of sketches for much grander works; now I’m working on incorporating electronic collage into my paintings, in what is effectively a hybrid or cyborg, mixing traditional painting with fully functioning technology.

As for the distant future, I see myself as a mad scientist-type, constantly experimenting; I’m crazy with ideas right now, but need time to allow my work to evolve before some things will work - I don’t have much time for patience though!  For the near future, I have some interesting collaborations on the horizon with a well-known street artist, as well as a consultancy role with an amazing new project space in the city, and then producing some great new work for Red Propeller of course.”

Click here to view work currently available through Red Propeller.