Dagan Benaaron has always been passionate about drawing ever since he started painting in 1988. Through his studies, he developed a fascination with the weight and resonances associated with different colours, igniting his future accomplishments in storytelling through art and creating nuanced visual narratives.
Throughout his career, Benaaron developed multiples series themed around ideas of memory and time. He has explored it through realism portraits based on historical events, as well as through the conceptualization of abstract experiences like the passing of time. He is interested in, and has sought out, how people around the world experience time and passion, and through this creates a study on the ways we process memories and experiences. Going forward, Benaaron aims to continue his exploration in the conceptual elements of the human experience by working through pieces that touch on the concept of existing as a whole. Through utilizing new methods of creating, he begins to ask not just how we experience the world but what space do we take up.
The central themes that I explore in my pieces are those pertaining to memory and conceptual human experiences such as the passing of time. In my latest work, I have also begun unpacking through notions of existence, the physical space we take up, the roles we play, and what exactly does it mean “to be.” Although I tackle highly conceptual subjects, I aim to do so through the use of colour, abstraction, characters, and symbology. Commonly, I centre various pieces around symbols such as the fluidity and whimsy of music, or inversion of traditional methods like portraiture or landscape into something modern and abstract. I use these symbols and techniques as a means of mapping out the ways in which we define and quantify the various narratives that make up our lives.
For me, time is not just a mathematical method of expression, but rather I am actively looking for how it is a formula for the human experience. Time and memory composes the sum of our experiences, everything we’ve experienced in the past, and everything we will experience in the future. Throughout my career, I do not bind myself to limited perspectives, instead I constantly work to seek out different communities and ask what time and memory means for them as a way of influencing the pieces I create. I am motivated by exploring the different ways we each occupy our space of existence and the artistic process I employ allows me to curate a diverse understanding of the ways we each perceive time, and how it reflects the different priorities and ways of seeing the world.
Another method I use in creating an accessible view into highly conceptual topics is through my character’s the Kronauts, named for Kronos and Chrome, time and colour respectively. These colourful characters acts as a simulacra of humanity, they are faceless beings defined entirely through the colour that composes them, the gestures they bring to each art work, and the space they take up. By removing any visual facial cues, the viewer is able to self impose themselves into the narratives of each painting, projecting on their own perception, thoughts, and beliefs. I aim to continuously map the boundaries of how we live and the layers of our experiences.
