Daniel Gonçalves

b. 1977

Works by Portuguese visionary and outsider artist Daniel Gonçalves, virtually unknown a decade ago, were initially shown in Porto in 2016 and later introduced to an international audience by the Pol Lemétais gallery in Paris. Gonçalves began to number his works from the time of his “debut” in February, 2016.  His artistic explorations helped Gonçalves, one of five brothers, to emerge from a troubled, turbulent childhood, after which he rejected his carpenter father’s harsh temper and disorderly character while embracing the man’s craftsmanship and dexterity. The creative act, however, which for Daniel maintains an essential psychological equilibrium, is a separate, repeated nocturnal ritual, enacted always in the same space, using precisely the same instruments, in a state of meditative concentration, a semi-trance in which he feels a connection to universal psychic forces: “I am involved with something personal that nobody can touch, I’m in charge of that micro-universe in front of me. There is no plan that precedes the drawing. I always feel that I’m in pursuit of perfection, of something unattainable. My life has always been in turmoil and my drawings work like an escape. In a way, the drawings try to be the balance that I did not always have.”  He confesses to being an obsessive, hyperactive personality, but at the same time celebrates the fact that, at 43, he still feels like a curious child. “I hope to convey purity, accuracy, perfection, balance, and forward that energy to those looking at the work.” For the last 20 years, he has used the same materials, the same pen and compass, always sitting on the same chair, always facing east. The artist is articulate and willing to discuss the processes he and his creations undergo, even if the driving, motivating force behind them remains ultimately mysterious and indescribable.  The series of drawings Gonçalves has produced have been hailed by critics and collectors as unique in their ability to convey by way of their suggestive abstraction a sense of magical order, wonder, and revelation.  Today, when not engaged in drawing, Daniel, with his partner and three children, manages a settled domestic existence. Daniel was featured in Raw Vision RV101, Spring 2019, and had one mention by the Museum Naif and Marginal Arts, Jagodina, Serbia “Best Exhibited Work, 2019.”  - by Tony Thorne, a consultant at King’s College London; Excerpt from Raw Vision, Spring 2019, Volume RV101

If you are interested in acquiring Daniel Gonçalves’ amazing work, learn more at http://www.lemetais.com/daniel-goncalves