Los Angeles-based artist Daniel Douke makes extremely detailed paintings of discarded iMac and MacBook boxes — complete with packaging tape and dirty smudges — as commentary on what he calls “Western society’s utopian dream of liberation through the computer.” As Douke, who as you might of guessed is a fan of Marcel Duchamp, explains, “There is an element of industrial process to my selection of images. I make paintings of things people look at everyday, but don’t necessarily see. They are what I call icons of expendability.” His work will be featured in a new survey opening this Friday at Sacramento, California’s Crocker Art Museum; click through to preview a selection of paintings that will be on display.
Daniel Douke, AirBook, 2008. Acrylic on canvas, 10 x 14 x 2 1/2 in. Collection of the artist
Daniel Douke, COLOR STYLE WRITER 4500, 1998. 20 x 20 x 6 in. Collection of Rick and Dana Dirickson
Daniel Douke, Agent Orange, 2000. Acrylic on canvas, 22 1/4 x 22 1/4 x 7 1/2 in. Collection of Rick and Dana Dirickson, San Francisco, CA
Daniel Douke, iMac, 1999. Acrylic on canvas, 22 x 22 x 11 1/4 in. Collection of Rick and Dana Dirickson, San Francisco, CA
Daniel Douke, iMac, 2008. Oil and acrylic on canvas and wood, 22 x 23 1/4 x 8 7/10 in. Collection of the artist
Daniel Douke, JUNIOR, 2009. Acrylic and canvas and bondo, 12 x 21 x 10 1/4 in. Courtesy Peter Mendenhall Gallery
Daniel Douke, G4, 2009. Acrylic on canvas and bondo, 14 x 17 x 7 in. Courtesy Peter Mendenhall Gallery
Daniel Douke, MacBook, 2008. Acrylic and oil on canvas and bondo, 15 x 15 3/4 x 3 in. Collection of Donald Kushner
Daniel Douke, Widescreen, 2009. Oil and acrylic on canvas stretched over wood, 21 3/4 x 23 x 9 in. Crocker Art Museum, gift of Samantha Schmitt