Daniel Voelker

Artist Statement

My work is rooted in collage, but I approach it like a constructed painting—layering hand-cut forms, painted gradients, and overlapping structures into modular, visually dense compositions. Each piece begins with drawing: loose, expressive forms made in acrylic marker. These drawings span a wide range—cartoon-like figures, expressionistic characters, and abstract shapes—reflecting an open-ended, intuitive approach to mark-making.

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I cut these drawings out of heavier paper to be painted and used in collage. I refer to them as

stencils—not in the traditional sense of spray-through templates, but as physical, painted objects that become the final components of the work. Each one is airbrushed with gradients, textures, or subtle color shifts. Once painted, the forms are arranged and rearranged through a process of improvisation. The composition develops as I layer shapes, adjust scale and orientation, and follow the spatial logic that emerges. Some elements become dominant; others recede or disappear. The work is guided by both structure and instinct.

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When a composition finally coheres, I disassemble the entire arrangement and reassemble it—this time gluing each piece down. That final step transforms a temporary construction into a committed object.

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I call this process neo-collage: a method that brings together drawing, painting, and cut-paper

assembly into a single, layered form. While my process echoes the way digital images are built in layers, it remains fully analog—material, tactile, and slow.

 

Recent works explore mythic themes, perceptual reversals, and constructed archetypes. These pieces are built slowly and are meant to be experienced gradually. I want them to offer more with each return.

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Biography

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Daniel Voelker is a Kingston-based artist whose practice centers on neo-collage—a constructed form of painting built from hand-cut and airbrushed paper stencils. Trained at the University of Washington and through the Atelier Program at Gage Academy of Art, he has developed a process that transforms loose, gestural drawings into modular elements, which are layered and reassembled into complex compositions. His works often contain embedded faces and psychological forms, balancing precision with unpredictability and inviting slow, sustained looking.

 

Themes of myth, memory, and identity recur throughout his work, with recent pieces exploring psychological portraiture and symbolic presence through geometric layering and luminous color fields. By treating collage as both painterly and architectural, Voelker offers images that are at once tactile and contemplative—shaped by intuition, structure, and an embrace of ambiguity.

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