Chilliwack – The CVAA and O’Connor Group Art Gallery present Daulby: Past, Present & Slightly Off Centre – January 10 to February 10, 2024.
Chilliwack artist Dan Daulby was born in 1954 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His early years after collage were spent working as a graphic designer/illustrator/photographer. The real journey as an artist began in 1985 with a group exhibition at the Winnipeg Archives Building it was there that his work caught the eye of the owners of the Uptown Gallery in Winnipeg and they offered him representation and a solo show the following year.
In early 1989, the artist had become deeply interested in his Ojibway and Celtic heritage and this interest led his work down a creative path inspired by a rich ancestry and a desire to find his own voice as an artist. Later that year he and his wife moved to the West Coast and at this time the artist entered a phase of discovery searching to find his own creative voice.
Instead of his heritage shaping his images he used the connection as a spiritual conduit to a creative awakening and a radical change of style and direction in his work. The output of this work increased and slowly a new audience took notice and the work has continued unabated. The inspiration for Daulby’s art comes from many influences and interests in his life leading to work that is dominated by images of pagan warriors, religion, robots, horses, lust, love and the bizarre. Portrayed in an vivid palette of colour, gritty, dramatic, graceful, whimsical and at times seemingly pointless, his work is evidence of a spiritual quest to define himself as an artist.
In a journey to discover his own voice as an artist this exhibition is journey down a road well traveled.
