WHO IS DANIEL ENCKELL
Daniel Enckell is a Finnish full-time figurative painter. He has worked as a visual artist entrepreneur since 2006. He paints with oil colour on linen canvas in a figurative contemporary style. His works are symbolic and there is always a story between the lines. He is inspired by the existential problematics of the human condition. Daniel would define his method as representational allegory.
The creation of a work happens mainly at his studio, which is located in Raasepori, 100km to the west of the capital of Finland, Helsinki. Daniel lives and works in Fiskars village, a small society with artists and artisans. His career as a figurative painter began in 1987 when he graduated from The Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. Since then he has exhibited his works many times both privately and in joint exhibitions with other artists.
Daniel’s paintings are symbolic. His work is current and firmly anchored in the present. The Finnish art critic, Otso Kantokorpi, writes in his blog, The Naked Critic” on 21.11.2013 as follows: “The artist (Enckell) is an interpreter of the eternal themes and dark-coloured world of the old masters’… (he) avoids the (anachronistic) danger deftly… Enckell is a dedicated and serious painter whose attitude and passion for painting and the ongoing study of it simply has to be respected.”
Daniel’s narrative expression is a declaration on behalf of people and humanity. A person is at their most genuine when they are born; naked and vulnerable. He cherishes this primitive state of mind also when he works. He tries to transcend the boundaries of time, and has focused on permanence and the eternal and its changes. “Enckell has focused on permanence and the eternal and its changes” Kantokorpi adds later in the same blog.
Daniel is involved in the “Imago Mundi” joint exhibition organised this year by the Benetton Foundation in Trevisor, Italy. His work has been included in the following collections: Benetton Foundation, Trevisor, Italy; Pro Artibus, Tammisaari, Finland; The Amos Anderson Art Museum and The University of Helsinki. His work is featured in the following publications: “Suomen Kuvalehti” magazine 41/10.10.2014, “Taide-lehti” magazine 3/2013 and 6/2010, “Huvudstadsbladet” newspaper 27.3.2015 as well as Otso Kantokorpi’s Blog : “Alaston kriitikko” (The Naked Critic) 29.11.2013 and 10.12.2010. In Finland Daniel’s most recent joint exhibitions have been the following: “Rabbe Enckell et al.”joint exhibition in Tammisaari, in 2015 organised by the Pro Artibus Foundation, and also, “Rajapinnat” (Interfaces), joint exhibition at Kuparipaja in Fiskars Village, Finland, in 2014. His latest private exhibitions have been at the Orton and Jangva Gallery in Helsinki, Finland in 2013.