Daniel Drabek

Daniel Drabek (b. 1998) is a Swiss-Italian artist based in Zurich, Switzerland.

Spanning across sculpture, installation, and painting, his work draws heavily from the aesthetics and languages of products of contemporary culture, particularly the aggressive iconography targeted at men and boys during their developmental stages. In his process, he reproduces these archetypes through grotesque and hyper-violent caricatures, addressing their underlying messages and connotations.

Within his work, this violent vocabulary becomes instrumental in understanding, on an intimate level, the individuals who are susceptible to these representations and the impact it has on their lives. Touching on topics such as alienation, loneliness, self-image, empowerment, coping mechanisms, cognitive distortions, fear, and evil.

Rather than directly recounting autobiographical experiences, Daniel Drabek’s narratives are often created through the eyes of fictional protagonists with distorted and overly-romanticized points of view. Occasionally granting them complete authorship over the works in order to embrace a raw, emotionally charged quality, blunt and simplistic metaphors, and uninhibited sincerity.

The results are confrontational, layered, and ambiguous works that aim to more honestly reflect a first-hand experience of today’s reality.