This body of work represents a foray into the artist’s natural creative impulses, with its beginnings in the mid-1990s. The artist was already working in this style upon moving to Sweden in 2000, and later completed two Complexity paintings in 2017 and 2018. The series began through explorations of repeatable patterns and compositional systems, driven by a search for greater complexity that could still maintain readability. Merely adding additional layers to these pattern-based works, however, proved insufficient to produce a compelling visual phenomenon.

As overlapping patterns accumulated, their structures began to influence one another, allowing further systems and emergent properties to develop. Within this interplay, predetermined interconnectivity was given creative force through distortional and disruptive elements that were themselves bound to the structures of the systems.

The goal was to generate chaos from order — to create the organic from the mechanical, motion from mathematics. These works reflect the hidden processes that shape everything we know, suggesting the beauty that arises from the complex interactions of patterns vibrating through the systems around and within us.

Many of the works are the result of extensive, time-consuming processes, requiring months — and in some cases, years — of meticulous handwork. Pink Frost, for example, took a full two years to complete.

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Johnathan Daily. With an impressionistic approach to colour and an intuitive method of selection, Johnathan Daily explores three-dimensionality while remaining true to his classical roots. He views his paintings as verbs rather than nouns, creating immersive experiences that engage viewers emotionally. Working in series is central to his practice, reflecting his dedication and thoughtfulness. Past series, such as Complexity and Shifted Blended, contrast and build upon one another, charting the evolution of his artistic journey. Daily captures fleeting impulses, though each piece can take up to two years to complete. Repetition plays a crucial role: layers of paint are applied 7 to 200 times in a process he describes as an “accrual of layered strata.” Titles and colours serve as carriers of meaning, highlighting both vibrant and negative spaces. His work invites viewers to linger, revealing hidden layers as light shifts, transforming brushstrokes into birds, faces, and rainbows, and allowing his paintings to move fluidly between figuration and abstraction. Through his experimental approach, Daily breaks rules and creates moments of surprise, affirming his position as a significant contemporary painter. 

Johnathan Daily (b. 1974) is a Swedish-American artist based in Stockholm since 2000. He earned his B.F.A. from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1999, after studying at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. His work has been exhibited extensively in Sweden and the U.S., including solo shows at Galleri Duerr in Stockholm, such as Blixtfisket (2023) and Surfing the Apocalypse (2021), as well as numerous group exhibitions.