Daniel van Benthuysen

Daniel van Benthuysen was born in St. Louis, Missouri and currently lives in Huntington, Long Island, New York. He studied at Saint Louis Priory School in St. Louis, Missouri, Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan Tulane University in New Orleans, Parsons School of Design in New York, Art Students League of New York, and Hofstra University in New York. He has focused in Studio Art, Art History, and Graphic Design.

Van Benthuysen works with many drawing materials, such as pencil; charcoal, conte, and pens, as well as watercolor, gouache, and oil paints. Van Benthuysen has showed work in New York, Connecticut, Georgia, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Missouri. His work has been accepted to several juried group shows and shows at the Art Students League of New York. In 2010, van Benthuysen had a solo show called "The Light Which Defines Them" at the Northport Wine Cellar.

He is currently working as an Assistant Professor of Informational Graphics at Hofstra University and as a freelance writer for Newsday with the Wall Street Journal.

“The image of someone wearing a paper crown is almost inevitably facetious and self-deprecating. The wearer usually has an expression that seems to say, "I'm a king or queen -- but we all know this is just silly pretending." I find it refreshing to do portraiture of people in attitudes that show they don't take themselves too seriously. There is enough genuinely pompous portraiture in the world already.”

This is a part of Daniel van Benthuysen’s Artist Statement.

I like how his paintings are somewhat gestural. I enjoy the imagery, but I do not believe that is has to be all about not taking themselves seriously. A lot can be said from the portraits. Each face has the ability to tell a story. Messages can be embedded in the appearance of a person. 

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