Violence against women and minorities, the horrors of war, and the tragedies of our time are the main themes of Daniel Erban’s practice. His work is characterized by thick lines, with gestures that are clean and decisive, brutal and direct. His instinctive and primitive universe brims with violence and sexuality, and reminds us of humanity’s dark side. Although irreverent and uncompromising, his work is not without irony. Erban has always preferred beautiful ugliness over bland prettiness. As such, My Inner Selves (1995) astutely portrays the irrepressible and visceral side of the human psyche.
Daniel Erban died in 2017. As a politically committed artist, he rejected much of today’s art as uninteresting and irresponsible if it failed to communicate an urgent social message. Erban participated in over two hundred solo exhibitions and many international printmaking biennales. His works are included in private and public collections throughout Canada and in Europe, as well as collections from the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Edmonton Art Gallery, and the University of New Brunswick.
