Daniel McAuley b. 1993
"studio practice bridges classical art history with post-internet visual culture"
Dan McAuley (b. 1993, New Zealand) is a Melbourne-based painter whose studio practice bridges classical art history with post-internet visual culture. Drawing upon Greco-Roman sculpture, Renaissance portraiture, and the visceral body distortions of Francis Bacon, McAuley examines how public opinion and the human condition are reconfigured by digital networks. His canvases contrast historical symbols of permanence and authority against the volatile, ephemeral nature of algorithmic media feeds.
Technically, McAuley translates screen-based aesthetics into layered paintings, combining traditional methodologies with the precise graphic line work of his background in tattoo art. Influenced by contemporary painters such as George Rouy, Avery Singer, and César Piette, he constructs synthetic, fluid figurative forms that embody digital glitch, light distortion, and visual saturation. Refined during a residency in Barcelona, McAuley’s practice transforms fleeting online iconography into tactile painted compositions, offering a rigorous critique of identity, communication, and belief in a hyper-connected age.
McAuley’s work examines how the saturation of digital information shapes personal perception, public opinion, and interpersonal connection.
Dan McAuley (b. 1993, New Zealand) is a Melbourne-based painter whose practice investigates the intersection of technology, communication networks, and the contemporary human condition. Relocating to Australia at eighteen after receiving an artistic scholarship, McAuley completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in painting at RMIT University.
McAuley’s work examines how the saturation of digital information shapes personal perception, public opinion, and interpersonal connection. Following an artist residency in Barcelona, his practice expanded to develop a distinct pictorial language centered on complex figurative forms. Drawing directly from the visual culture, iconography, and fragmented aesthetics of social media, McAuley translates digital phenomena into painted representations that question how identity and thought are constructed in a hyper-connected world.