Emerging British artist Dan Cimmermann has exhibited widely throughout the UK since graduating with a degree in Fine Art from Leeds Metropolitan University in 2001, including twice within the prestigious BP Portrait Prize. Cimmermann’s colourful paintings and murals are a meeting of ‘street’ and ‘studio’, a reflection upon British identity and a rebellion against societal rules of old. Through a process of reworking layers of paint and pen Cimmermann defaces classical works of 18^th century portraiture, and creates new narratives and value systems. His expressive body of work encapsulates a dissatisfaction with the current system of politics and offers liberation from symbols of wealth and power.

His paintings are built up using several layers of paint, starting with washes in inks and glaze medium and building up to impasto oil paint applied with a palette knife. He draws inspiration from the interesting surfaces on peeling, crumbling walls in cities, where many stripped back layers of paint and plaster reveal a sense of history and act as a reminder of faded memories. He is inspired by urban walls covered with fragments of torn posters, graffiti and advertisements. Dan mainly works with figurative photographs and paintings that he finds evocative. He uses these images together to construct a composition that may or may not include a narrative.