Levitation

Daniel Malta, Brazil

Daniel’s work draws on a contemporary naive aesthetic reminiscent of the great Jean-Michel Basquiat. Inspired by street art and neo-expressionism, Daniel deliberately strives for a childlike quality in his figures and shapes. He sketches drafts of his paintings first on an iPad. “Then I go to the canvas or cardboard, a material that I like a lot,” Daniel says. “I love the texture it gives to the work.” Through the use of everyday materials including flattened cardboard boxes, barcodes from old labels, and masking tape, the work is given an assembled quality made popular by contemporary American artists in the 1960s.