Daniel Maidman says, “Creating art is first and foremost a delight in seeing.” His latest psychologically intriguing monochromatic figure paintings will be shown at Dacia Gallery in New York opening October 21. The exhibition, An Unknown Man of the Modern World, continues through November 2.
The Stranger, oil on canvas, 24 x 24"
In an interview with his fellow figurative painter and writer, Natalie Holland, he added to his statement on the delight in seeing, “After that, a virtual worship of the human figure.”
Maidman attended a school of the visual arts in Toronto, Canada, and received his BA with honors in radio, television and motion pictures at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While pursuing a career in film he attended life drawing workshops several times a week for 10 years. Drawing and the figure got the better of him and he now pours his best into art—producing it and writing about it.
Man Versus the Tower, oil on canvas, 36 x 36"
He also reads about it, having absorbed the wonderful complexities of neurobiologist Dr. Margaret Livingstone’s Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing. Livingstone has discovered that perception of form and color, for instance, occur in different parts of the brain, perception of form having developed before perception of color. Maidman remarks that “the human figure is one of the most complex subjects available for the artist to tackle. It involves structure, function and movement. We’re hardwired to pick faces out of a field. It’s difficult, however, when doing a life drawing to have the figure and the face in the same drawing. For the figure we use the object recognition area of our brain and for the face we switch to another. You can have mismatches of perception.” 
The Edge of the Forest, oil on canvas, 36 x 48"
He comments, “Artists are always talking about reproducing in their paintings the qualities they like in their drawings. I find the monochromatic quality of the drawings allows the world to be more abstract in the paintings.”
The Last Day in Arcadia, oil on canvas, 48 x 60"
His monochromatic oils rendered in Portland warm gray and titanium white are not distracted by color. In Man Versus the Tower and The Stranger, male figures appear in nearly the same pose. The nude in the former carries a fasces, symbolic of a magistrate’s power in ancient Rome and accommodated by Mussolini as a sign of authority in Fascist Italy. The young man faces the world full of potential. In The Stranger, the old man appears to contemplate lost opportunities. —
Dacia Gallery 53 Stanton Street • New York, NY 10002 • (917) 727-9383 • www.daciagallery.com
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