Daniel Ferstl
- Aug 11
- 1 min read
Daniel Ferstl’s paintings are also, in a way, sculptures. He stretches bright printed fabric over frames and sews soft, stuffed shapes on top, so the whole surface pushes outward. What painting is left survives only in the patterns of the fabric he picks.
He likes to mix the high and the low. His references jump from 1970s and 1980s cult films to memes and gaming, and a classical sense of composition sits right next to something loud and a little tacky. The shiny, plush surfaces are full of what he calls “cruel optimism,” the feeling that keeps us holding on to dreams that may end up hurting us.
Ferstl is Austrian and lives in Vienna, where he studied under Christian Ludwig Attersee. His work has been shown at Kunsthalle Wien and the Belvedere, at Belmacz in London, and more recently at L21 in Palma de Mallorca and Albert Contemporary in Odense.
