Daniel Sharp was born in 1955, in Lacombe, Alberta, Canada. He has lived in Ottawa since 1982. Sharp worked at Artspace Gallery in Peterborough Ontario (1980-82) and was Artistic Director at the Ottawa artist-run centre Gallery 101 (1989-91). From 1991 until 2017 he worked as a program officer, then manager and curator with the Canadian government’s art collection for embassies and diplomatic missions abroad.

Statement

In my paintings I explore compositions of colour and forms, geometric and lyrical abstraction, sometimes involving shaped paintings, always with a strong interest in drawing.

My paintings are about the sensibilities of my regular life, with its ordinary and remarkable aspects. I think of my paintings as mediations on daily experience, symbolic associations, graphic style, and sometimes the inspiration of specific periods of art history. A recent series of my paintings involved the making of abstract works drawing on certain 16th Century Asian ceramics and referring to modernist monochrome painting. Other works refer to contemporary and historical abstract painting practices in a manner that is a critique and subversion.

Education

York University Toronto, BFA 1979

Graduate Studies in art and cultural theory, Canadian Studies, Carleton University (1985-89)

Exhibition summary

Paintings have been exhibited in local and regional exhibitions in Toronto; Oakville; Peterborough; St. Catharines; and St. John’s, Newfoundland. In Ottawa, solo and group exhibitions over twenty years have included, SAW Gallery, Gallery 101, Ottawa School of Art, Carl Davis Gallery, CUBE Gallery, Collected Works Bookstore, West End Studio Tours, Karsh-Masson Gallery, Ottawa City Hall, Studio Sixty Six Contemporary Art Gallery and independent artist exhibitions. Sharp has maintained a studio at the EBA building since 2006.

Sharp is currently represented by Studio Sixty Six Contemporary Art Gallery in Ottawa. studiosixtysix.ca