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Daniel H Bell (b.1980) lives and works in the UK, with a practice that involves painting, drawing and filmmaking. His work explores the fragile relationship between humans and their natural environment. With enigmatic set pieces, involving various animal and hybrid characters, he presents an eerie and disjointed modern world. Bell's paintings revel in ambiguity, with stained, decaying surfaces giving way to alien environments and friendly faces. Working intuitively and embracing accidents, he creates a chaotic mixture of realism, caricature and abstraction. His drawings show a similar approach, with cartoon-like imagery collapsing into something more obscure, shifting from the humorous to the sinister and horrific.
Bell's video work delves deeper into these ideas, presenting a visceral coming together of different organisms and various contraptions. His films take shape through the construction of small models and sets, using stop-motion, time-lapse and other techniques to create uncanny scenes of life and death. Either humanely incorporating real animals, or spilling over into the territory of painting, the emphasis of the videos is on the tactile and the dreamlike. Across these different media, Bell's work is an ominous reflection of the natural world, a place that is being taken apart and reconfigured by humans.
Education
2007 Norwich School of Art and Design MA Digital Practices – Distinction
2003 Glasgow School of Art BA (Hons) Fine Art – First Class
2000-2001 Rhode Island School of Design
1998-1999 Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology
Selected Exhibitions
2024 The Horror! – Project 78 Gallery, St Leonards-on-Sea
2023 Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition – The Maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr
2023 Bridge – Tjörnedala Konsthall, Skåne, Sweden
2022 Contemporary British Painting Prize – Huddersfield Art Gallery
– Thames-Side Studios Gallery, London
2022 The Anxiety of Interdisciplinarity – The Island Venue, Bristol
2022 Living With the Past – Cupola Contemporary Art, Sheffield
2022 Derwent Art Prize 2022 – Gallery@Oxo, London
2022 Janus Revisited – Cupola Contemporary Art, Sheffield
2013 Vestlandsutstillingen – Tour of various venues in Western Norway
2012 The Stuff of Nightmares – V&A Museum of Childhood, London
2011 Sturiale Paper Projects 1 – Sturiale Project Space, Gorizia, Italy
2010 Drawings from the Collection by Brindle and Bell – V&A Museum of Childhood, London
2009 Salthouse 09 – The Church of St Nicholas, Salthouse, Norfolk
2008 Harmlos: Endlich Menschlich – Montana, Berlin, Germany
2008 Kettle’s Yard Open – Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
2008 Salon 08 – Matt Roberts Arts / VINEspace, London
2007 The Sprezzatura Maze – Studio Warehouse Gallery, Glasgow
2006 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition – London
2006 Concrete Allotment – Temporary Contemporary, London
2005 East International 2005 – Norwich Gallery, Norwich
2004 Sample Glasgow – Galleri Wetterling, Stockholm, Sweden
2003 Daniel Bell, Piotr Janas – Transmission Gallery, Glasgow
Selected Film Screenings
2020 Another Hole in the Head Film Festival – San Francisco, USA
2017 Antimatter Media Art – Victoria, Canada
2009 London Short Film Festival – ICA, London
2009 Leftfield and Luscious – Tenderpixel Gallery, London
2009 Flatpack Festival – The Electric Cinema, Birmingham
2008 Filmfest Dresden: International Short Film Festival - Germany
2008 700IS Experimental Film and Video Festival – Egilsstaðir, Iceland
2008 London Short Film Festival – ICA, London
2008 Cannes in a Van – Cannes Film Festival, France
2008 Screen Tests I – ABEL Neue Kunst, Berlin
2007 International Short Film Festival Oberhausen - Germany
2007 Lange Nacht der Kultur – Kaiserslautern, Germany
2007 Capalbio Cinema International Short Film Festival – Toscani, Italy