Danja Akulin

Danja was born in Leningrad in 1977. He currently lives and works in Berlin. 

Akulin’s artworks employ a recognisable signature technique of minute pencil shading on paper subsequently mounted on canvas. The artist’s black and white drawings are built solely around the interplay of light and shadow. His practice elevates drawing from a mere sketch to a fully fledged artistic statement. The resulting images are in equal part abstract, symbolic, and figurative: forest trees, field grasses, still lakes, and the moon looming above the lacustrine surface all turn into sensual and meditative landscapes. Akulin does not shy away from reflecting on beauty, while his visual language emerges right in the nature’s studio.