Daniel Dobarco is GlogauAIR resident
from July, 2023 to September, 2023 and October, 2023 to December, 2023
With the medium of painting and sculpture, Dobarco crafts realms that reference to fantasy culture and video games. His creations manifest a fictitious universe, steeped in tragicomic undertones. Inhabitants of this realm are drawn from gamer mythology, fiction literature, and pop culture, serving as histrionic reflections of our own humanity.
Meet the Artist
How did your artistic journey begin?
My first contact with art was as a child. A teacher told my parents that I had a gift for drawing and they enrolled me in a small arts academy. One day, the teacher at the academy told me that she chose a reproduction of a work of art to copy in oil and I remember when I first saw “The Starry Night” by Van Gogh, it affected me deeply, and I understood that art was not simply a copying of reality, and since then I knew that I wanted to dedicate myself to it.
How would you describe your practice as an artist?
It is a very personal and intimate issue, which is usually difficult to develop. I would say that it is an adventure. Sometimes you feel like you are in a dungeon full of traps and enemies, other times you feel like it is the only way to know yourself. Perhaps the most complicated part of artistic practice is exposing yourself and being prepared for all the good and bad that it entails.
What inspires you to create your art?
Literature, philosophy, history, video games and how these intermingle with one’s own personal experience.
What influenced your decision to come to GlogauAIR?
GlogauAir has long connections with my hometown in Spain, Castellón. A production and residency scholarship was offered to me, so I saw a great opportunity to get to know Berlin and live with other artists in the same space. The truth is that it is a wonderful experience to be able to share your time with other artists from around the world.
Does the city of Berlin have an influence on your production?
Absolutely! In the end, exposing yourself to new experiences and places always changes your perspective of the world and influences your work. In my last work, I felt very influenced by the canals and lakes in Berlin.
Statement
Daniel Dobarco focuses his production on painting and sculpture, creating spaces that reference the world of video games and fantasy culture. His work creates a fictitious world from a tragicomic point of view which is inhabited by certain beings extracted from the new gamer mythology, fiction literature and popular culture, but in the end this is nothing more than a histrionic reflection of ourselves. This fictional world is used as a gateway to talk about things that would not fit in ours, personal and social concerns without having the need to be legible or justify itself, being able to play and turn the speech into something obtuse and strange, a place of refuge and analysis.
GlogauAIR Project
out of the dungeon
This project is based on dungeons, role-playing games, known as dungeon crawler. It starts with the idea of travel and search, which in videogame language it is known as quest. Out of the dungeon is about a person like me, who armed with a pack of cigarettes, cell phone, wallet and the keys to the Toyota in hand, enters the eerie doors of the dungeon. Persuaded by the gossip of the people of his village that he is going to find all kinds of wonderful things, but beware, there are orcs! His parents warned him, the difficulty of the game varies according to class, race, gender, trade… and that you better have good skills, be an artist do not even try, there are more orcs. The funny thing happens during the tour, they were right in many things, you begin to understand what is the real fatigue, not making ends meet because half of the chests are fake, the keys do not fit any door and you do not have enough for potions, suddenly you have a parasite stuck in your head and it tells you it’s called stress, you smoke a cigarette. But there are also good things, you realize the otherness, the alien, the orc, the other, maybe it’s not so different from you, maybe it’s not your nemesis. In the end, instead of fighting stupidly, you end up going as Buñuel and you start documenting those similarities, those orcs that have their intimacy, whose gestures are not so different from yours. You make a kind of travel diary with what you have at hand, some fabrics and some pots that you buy from some low cost magician, some cardboard that you take out of the dumpster at work to make an installation. Here begins my diary, welcome to Out of the dungeon.
CV Summary
Daniel holds a BA in Fine Arts and an MA in Artistic Production from the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain. He is currently the recipient of the Producción Hàbitat artístic Castelló grant (2023) in residence at GlogauAir in Berlin.
His work has been exhibited in many galleries around Spain, including Tuesday to Friday, Valencia (2021 y 2023) and Galería Fran Reus, Palma de Mallorca (2023).
GROUP SHOWS
- 2023 DREAM PAPER 2. Gallery Slika. Lyon. France
- 2023 POSTMODERNISM. La Pera Projects. on-line.
- 2023 PANORAMA 06. Fran Reus gallery, Palma de Mallorca. Spain
- 2022 LA SUERTE DE LA SONRISA. Coloring The World Foundation, Factory of Dreams, Madrid. Spain
- 2022 ARTE APARTE XIV. La carolina, Jaen. Spain
- 2021 SUPERFACIL. Tuesday to Friday gallery, Valencia. Spain
- 2021 DEPRISA, DEPRISA. Group Show. Valencia. Spain
SHOWS
- 2023 LOOT. Tuesday to Friday gallery, Valencia. Spain
- 2022 LORE. Espacio Luna. Internet Moon gallery. Valencia. Spain
- 2020 CRUZETA. Tuesday to Friday gallery, Valencia. Spain
- 2021 BELLUM, BELLI, BELLO. Nivi Collblanc gallery. Castellón. Spain
- 2020 BELLUM, BELLI, BELLO. GlogauAir, Opening Studio. Berlín. Germany
ART FAIRS
- 2019 Marte, Castellón International Art Fair 6th Edition, Marte Orbital Expedition Stand, Castellón. Spain.
- 2018 Marte, Castellón International Art Fair 5th Edition, Marte Orbital Stand, Castellón. Spain.
AWARDS
- 2023 PRODUCTION GRANT, Hàbitat artístic castelló, GlogauAir . Berlín. Germany
- 2019 DÁVALOS-FLETCHER GRANT, Castellón. GlogauAir. Berlín. Germany
- 2018 PRODUCTION GRANT, Hàbitat artístic castelló, la Rectoría. San Pere, Barcelona. Spain
- 2017 FIRST PRIZE, XVII UNIVERSITY OF MURCIA PAINTING PRIZE. Spain
- 2017 AWARDED, 5th SAMPLE OF MULTIMEDIA AND ARTISTIC PRODUCTION, PAM!17. Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain.
- 2017 PRODUCTION GRANT , II CULLA CONTEMPORANEA. Culla, Castellón. Spain
EDUCATION
- 2017 Master’s degree in Artistic production, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain.
- 2016 Bachelor degree in arts, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain.
- 2011 Certificate of Higher Education in Ilustration, Castelló School of Arts and Design, Spain
Gallery
