Daniel Unverricht’s oil paintings provide a rare insight into the urban nocturnal underworld of New Zealand. Artificial light spills from streetlamps either casting harsh shadows or barely penetrating the darkness, creating a charged atmosphere. The unsettling absence of humans presents an environment of unease and potential for danger. Unverricht expresses the often-unacknowledged fear and human isolation city life can generate.

Unverricht is fascinated with depicting the relationship between light and dark: the idea that shadows can physically consume space and that artificial light (from streetlights) can give a false sense of security. He explains, “Lit up cities have pseudo safety. I want my work to capture that with areas of inescapability and multiple-choice exits."

Although Unverricht has been depicting the deserted streets of his hometown, Hastings since 1994, they could be located anywhere. He has painted other cities, including Wellington, but it’s Hastings he returns to.

This work is full of personal meaning for Unverricht. Park (2015) depicts a site in Napier where Unverricht’s Dad once got into a skirmish. “You have to enter the gates to get to this oasis on the other side.” His father passed away late in 2015, just a month after Peter McLeavey, the Wellington dealer who Unverricht had been employed by for five years.

Unverricht (born 1975, Hastings) received a Master of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, graduating in 2003. He has exhibited extensively in both solo and group shows. Unverricht’s work also sits in several private and public collections. Daniel Unverricht lives and works in Masterton.