In Dialog with Daniel Crews-Chubb In Dialog with Daniel Crews-Chubb

For his new exhibition The Belt of Venus at Patricia Low Contemporary, Daniel Crews-Chubb returns to themes which have lengthy formed his work: mythology, fragmented our bodies and the area between abstraction and figuration. In Venice, his work really feel particularly becoming. Surrounded by historical past, fading surfaces and shifting mild, the works transfer between reminiscence and materials, continually revealing and obscuring themselves on the similar time.

I spoke with Daniel about working within the studio, the physicality of portray, fragmented varieties and the unusual rigidity between abstraction and figuration that continues to form his artwork.

Amelie Bachert Hi Daniel, if somebody walked into your studio with out figuring out your work, what would they discover first?

Daniel Crews-Chubb A vibrant mess! My studio is a really chaotic and busy area. There are massive canvases in all places, each on the partitions and throughout the ground, alongside torn items of material, scraps of canvas and bits of charcoal scattered round. I take advantage of a whole lot of totally different supplies, so inks, oils, acrylics, charcoal, luggage of sand and spray paint cans are normally unfold all through the area.

The chaos undoubtedly feeds into the work although. It virtually turns into part of it and may drive the choices I make. But I feel that’s all a part of its vitality and texture in the long run.

AB Your exhibition at Patricia Low Contemporary in Venice is titled „The Belt of Venus“, after the pink stripe seen proper earlier than dawn or after sundown. Have you seen the Belt of Venus in actual life just lately? What was it like?

DC I’ve. I keep in mind seeing it actually vividly as soon as in Italy. We have been on the seaside on a winter afternoon. The manner the pink merges into yellow and blue is basically placing. Pink is a color I all the time appear to return to in my work for some purpose. There’s normally at the very least a contact of scorching neon pink in each portray. I like how a sudden pop of color can utterly shift one thing, make it really feel extra modern, barely punky, or throw the picture off stability in an fascinating manner.

AB The title already suggests a robust mythological undertone within the collection. What does Venus signify for you past the literal reference?

DC I simply actually preferred the title. Obviously it carries each scientific and mythological meanings. Mythology has all the time me and sometimes informs the work. Venus has been depicted numerous occasions all through historical past, and I like the thought of my figures present as damaged reminiscences of those icons, references that shift and mutate by the portray course of.

AB Your work continually strikes between abstraction and figuration. How has your relationship to the human determine modified through the years?

DC My method and strategy are likely to shift from collection to collection, with every physique of labor turning into barely totally different from the final. But that rigidity between abstraction and figuration is one thing I’m all the time trying to find. If the work turns into too figurative or too summary, it loses a sure magic. It’s the strain that retains the work alive for me. They by no means actually reply my questions, they in all probability simply create extra. It’s an ongoing technique of trusting the place the work desires to go.

ABYou typically reference classical Roman sculpture and dismembered varieties. What does fragmentation permit you to categorical {that a} full physique can’t?

DC I keep in mind visiting Rome once I was youthful and being struck by what number of statues have been lacking limbs. I additionally had an identical expertise on the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, the place I noticed an enormous stone carving of the Aztec moon goddess Coyolxãuhqui with all her limbs separated from her torso. I’m all the time in search of these sorts of visible hyperlinks throughout historical cultures.

What pursuits me is how these fragments nonetheless really feel recognisable, however are so eroded by time that you could by no means totally grasp them. They sit someplace between picture and reminiscence. There is a sort of pareidolia in it, the place you’re continually attempting to finish what’s lacking. The figures in my work work in an identical manner. They seem and disappear like fragments of a distant reminiscence.

AB In an interview from 2025, you described your self as “a sculptor trapped in a painter’s body.” How does that concept present up on this new physique of labor?

DCMy work have all the time felt very sculptural to me. I hardly ever use brushes. I typically smear thick oil paint straight from the tube onto the canvas with my arms, virtually as if I’m working with clay. The collage parts additionally add to the materiality of the floor. I very a lot consider the works as objects fairly than simply photographs.

AB Your work really feel extremely bodily and textured. How essential is the fabric course of in comparison with the picture itself?

DC For me, the floor is simply as essential because the picture. We stay in an age dominated by digital photographs, and I feel that inevitably impacts the way in which painters work at this time. People typically inform me the work look a lot better in individual, which I like listening to. I’m undoubtedly not making work to look good on a display.

AB:  Your work references artists like Willem de Kooning and Cecily Brown, in addition to Cubism and works like Girl with a Mandolin. How do you take up these influences with out slipping into citation or imitation?

DC When I used to be youthful, I spent a whole lot of time trying and trying to find inspiration. Now I principally simply need to make issues. Like a sponge, I’ve absorbed every part I’m drawn to, and now I need to push it again out in my very own manner. The work really feel like damaged reminiscences of artworks and artefacts I’ve encountered by journey, museums and books. They undoubtedly interact with artwork historical past, however I like holding the references barely out of attain.

AB What’s the strangest interpretation of your work you’ve ever heard?

DC Some individuals don’t see the figures within the work in any respect, which all the time actually surprises me.

AB What sort of expertise do you hope guests can have with these work in Venice?

DC I hope the work ship a direct impression, however then slowly start to disclose themselves over time, virtually like an phantasm. The figures transfer out and in of focus, and it’s these visible shifts and ambiguities that curiosity me. That is what retains me desirous to push the work additional.

AB You’ve exhibited everywhere in the world, from China and South Korea to the UK, the US and Mexico. What makes Venice such a particular place to current modern artwork?

DC Venice appears like a museum floating on water. During the Biennale, your entire metropolis turns into this open air gallery, so I used to be very excited to current this work there, at this explicit second.

AB The exhibition options six work. Do you’ve a favorite?

DC The largest portray within the exhibition, *The Belt of Venus I*, might be my favorite as a result of it captures a whole lot of what I’m attempting to realize at this level in my journey. I see it virtually as a reminiscence of The Three Graces, however fragmented, glitchy and distorted.

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The Belt of Venus is on view at Patricia Low Contemporary, Dorsoduro 2793, Venice.

From 6 May till 15 August 2026.