Dan Freeman

Always the iconoclast, Brooklyn artist Daniel Freeman chooses to rely on invention and narrative to reflect his own original style. He considers his greatest heroes to be Vincent Van Gogh and Caravaggio, as well as contemporary masters Red Grooms, Alice Neel, and Alex Katz.

Mr. Freeman’s training as a still-life painter by the New Realist painters in the late 1970s later evolved into explorations of figure painting from memory and the study of the the work of Piero Della Francesca. His post graduate scholarly work included training in fresco painting, which came about because of this respect for the masters of Renaissance and Rococo Art. This all is reflected in his painting today, which is based in a belief that invented figure composition has always been ’true' abstraction, guided by Cicero's maxim 'Ut Pittura Poesis' ( Like the Poet is the Painter).

In his early days as a New York Artist he worked as studio assistant for a number of artists: Red Grooms, Alice Neel, Larry Rivers, and Karl Schrag. At that time he was also an avid art gallery visitor and took advantage of all of NYCs museums, as well as out of the way spots like the New School, which at that time housed the great Thomas Benton “American Experience” murals....

Tyler School of Art, Queens College, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, School of Visual Arts, and SUNY.

Solo Exhibitions: Tugboat Gallery, Prospect Manor, and 65 Fen Gallery, Brooklyn, NY., Semaphore and Tuthill Gimprich Gallery, N.Y.C.

Group Shows: Brooklyn Museum, PLG Arts, 40 S9th St. Gallery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Caelum Gallery, George Adams Gallery, Chelsea, NY. Angel Orensanz Foundation, Marissa Del Rey Gallery, Gracie Mansion Gallery, Exit Art, NYC. Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia; Herron Gallery, Indianapolis; Bucknell University, PA; Artist’s Choice Museum, Soho; American Academy and Institute of Arts & Letters, NYC; U. of Maryland Museum, College Park.

Permanent Installations: Murals at 64 Fenimore Street, Bklyn, NY; and Lincoln Place, Brooklyn, NY