Daniel Rapley
Artist
He / him
Daniel is an artist working experimentally with photography, to discover new and unexpected ways of seeing with and through the medium. By probing the tensions between representation and abstraction, his work meditates on photography’s elastic correspondence with reality, and often appears more painterly than photographic in character.
Daniel is drawn to the heavy, sticky matter of photography, yet also its transparent and immaterial state. In prioritising its materiality, and responding to abstract qualities that emerge through chance processes, his work reconsiders what photography can be, beyond its status as an instrument of representation.
An interest in the strangeness of authorship underpins his practice. By appropriating found photographic material, his work allows histories, contexts, producers and meanings to overlap and conflate, becoming uncanny sites, where authorial certainty has slipped its leash.
Daniel's work has featured in group shows at The Barbican, London, Club Solo, The Netherlands and Olympic Park, Beijing and has been reviewed in Frieze, Artists Newsletter and New York Arts. His first museum solo exhibition was held at Lakeside Arts in 2024, to coincide with the publication of his first book, Drift, (Beam Editions, 2024). He holds a Fine Art Masters Degree (Distinction) from Chelsea College of Art and a First Class Fine Art Degree from De Montfort University. He is the Course Leader of the Art & Design Foundation Diploma at Lincoln College and an Associate Photography Lecturer at Lincoln University. He regularly delivers bookmaking workshops in educational and public institutions and collaborates with Designer Bookbinders and Printmaking Charity. He is a founding member of Coreset, and an associate member of Backlit and Primary, contemporary visual arts organisations in Nottingham. Daniel's work is held in public and private collections.
