Biography
Daniel is a Malaysian-based Dutch artist, creating unique monotype prints based on digitally modelled environments in which he recreates traditional architecture. He left a position of status, as an international school principal, to lead by example by continuing as artist in which he has space to keep prominent where we as humanity came from to know where we are going to.
Daniel’s practice centres on vernacular architecture: the everyday buildings communities actually live in, built from local materials to suit their environment. He researches and reconstructs these structures and cultures to value its history, and to be able to explain the importance of them. In his world, the houses are alive telling their story visually to those who want to see. His debut series begins with traditional houses in Malaysia, with the Rumah Kutai of Perak in particular. This is his first chapter in a subject that will extend far beyond it.
Artist Statement
My work pushes back on modern life, which is erasing local communities that took centuries to build and understand. I’m drawn to vernacular architecture because it’s local, communal, and precise — traditional knowledge encoded in materials and form, solving specific problems for specific places, built in harmony with environment rather than against it.
No two prints are ever the same. The same structure returns each time in a different light, a different atmosphere, a different world evoking different emotions and thoughts. The house is constant. What it feels like to stand in front of it never is.
When I drive by a house getting lost to the sand of time, I still see the beauty and richness of life it once held dearly. In my work, the houses stand in worlds that raise questions rather than give solutions. Between the impossible and the beautiful, they’re still telling their story.