DANIEL REMER | STRANGER THAN DREAMS

DANIEL REMER: Stranger Than Dreams

Daniel Remer’s first solo exhibition, 'Stranger Than Dreams', explores existential themes through still-life photography. Created over the past four years, this body of work reflects ideas that preoccupy the artist. Working with carefully chosen objects and materials, Remer investigates the complexities of human existence, approaching objects as more than mere physical forms. In his photographs, they become vessels for abstract ideas, emotions, and philosophical inquiry.

Through a subtle process of anthropomorphism, Remer imbues objects with metaphysical significance, constructing suggestive narratives that invite viewers to reflect on their own humanity and existential concerns.

A common response to realistic painting is the observation that it “looks like a photograph”— a remark often tinged with derision, suggesting that what can be mechanically captured requires no painterly mediation. Remer’s practice inverts this assumption. His images are photographs that adopt the visual language of painting, marked by saturated color, layered textures, and a depth of surface that recalls the Dutch Masters.

Remer works with a photographic technique known as light painting. In complete darkness, he uses a small flashlight as his sole light source. During a long exposure, the light is gradually moved across the composition. This process aligns more closely with painting than with traditional photography: the flashlight functions as a brush, and light is applied to the photographic surface much like pigment to canvas.

Central to Remer’s practice is the interplay between subjective perception — color, light, texture, line, and tone — and objective understanding, including ideas, historical references, and cultural conventions. His works engage both sensation and intellect, activating intuition and thought in parallel.

Growing up in London, Remer’s frequent visits to museums and galleries inspired a lasting engagement with 20th-century art that continues to shape his visual language. Among the artists who have influenced him, Giorgio de Chirico, founder of the Metaphysical Art movement, has played a particularly significant role. The exhibition title is inspired by de Chirico’s words:

“Although the dream is a very strange phenomenon and an inexplicable mystery, far more inexplicable is the mystery and aspect that our minds confer on certain objects and aspects of life.”

Text: Nathalie Wertheimer, based on the full exhibition text by Dr. David Graves.