Daniel Lefcourt

Daniel Lefcourt is renowned for his artistry, characterized by minimalist aesthetics and a predominantly monochromatic palette. His creations delve into profound conceptual inquiries and artistic explorations. 

Biography of Daniel Lefcourt

Born in 1975 in New York City, Daniel Lefcourt currently resides and operates from his artistic studio in Brooklyn. He obtained his Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University and shares his expertise as a faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Lefcourt's remarkable body of work has earned placements in prestigious collections such as The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, The Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami, and The Dia Art Foundation in New York, among others.

Noteworthy solo exhibitions featuring Lefcourt's artistry include showcases at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Pennsylvania in 2012 and the White Flags project in Saint-Louis, Missouri, also in 2012.

In recognition of his innovative contributions to the art world, the Dia Art Foundation commissioned a web project from Lefcourt in 2013, further solidifying his impact on contemporary artistic expression.

Exhibition "Strata": Exploring Abstract Landscapes from an Aerial Perspective

In his latest series of paintings, artist Daniel Lefcourt unveils a captivating exploration of abstract landscapes observed from an aerial viewpoint. These works mark a continuation of Lefcourt's ongoing investigation into the intersection of painting with technical and scientific imaging.
A key inspiration for Lefcourt's landscapes stems from the iconic recording of the first image of Mars by NASA scientists in 1965. For Lefcourt, this imagery serves as a poignant example of a mediated painting process. It juxtaposes the random surface formations of the Martian terrain with the precise numerical encoding of these features into a grid of values. This duality between chance and encoding provides Lefcourt with a conceptual framework upon which to build his artistic endeavors.

The creative process begins with Lefcourt employing chance procedures to apply washes of pigment onto untreated canvases. Subsequently, these canvases are photographed and imported into 3-D software, where Lefcourt meticulously programs lines, marks, and diagrams to analyze the surface as though it were a dimensional landscape model. The resulting points and vectors are then rendered onto the original canvas using a computer-controlled plotter—a tool specifically constructed by Lefcourt for this series. Through this innovative approach, Lefcourt's canvases serve as testing grounds, revealing the interplay between the spontaneous application of paint and the methodical mapping of these actions onto a single terrain—the terrain of the painting itself.

Beyond their visual allure, Lefcourt's work prompts contemplation on contemporary image production while navigating the realities of material processes within the rich historical tradition of landscape painting.