Daniel Stupar: beyond looking back

Daniel Stupar’s  recent work is inspired by the metaphysical concepts associated with axis mundi or cosmic center. In this construct an axis mundi is both a physical and spiritual marker of sorts, designating a point as geographic center of earth as well as a kind of column suggesting transcendence.

While the axis mundi carry with them the notion of transcending from a point in time and space, Stupar’s works for the wall offer a kind of looking back, as these recent pieces borrow the aesthetic language of his earlier fragment series. Unlike the previous work, there is a more deliberate approach. Letting go of simpler concerns of pattern and color, these pieces become means for expressing Stupar’s fascination with exploded diagrams, aerial landscape photography and the mixed perspective of young children. For instance, Last Coppice. Piet, Iowa calls to mind concise arrangements of parceled land, Construction #19 harkens to airport runways and Once in a Blue Moon a Green Moon presents a complex arrangement shapes that may suggest manmade structures, buildings, silos, and water towers. Despite their references, the work maintains a rich abstract quality that invites reflection on distilled spatial relationships and familiar topographical form.