Daniel Cabrillos Jacobsen

Overview

Daniel Cabrillos Jacobsen approaches painting with a colourful and intuitive style that reflects his Danish-Filipino identity. His works not only celebrate his heritage but also draw inspiration from the influences of his childhood, including the world of 'street-culture' where he first began to wield a paintbrush. Cabrillos Jacobsen weaves stories onto the canvas, which are inspired by the tapestry of his everyday life and cherished memories from years gone by. Playfulness and melancholy seem to blend seamlessly.

He sees his paintings as mediums for story-telling, where the story-telling is not only limited to the painting’s visual composition and figuration, but continues in the physical aspects of the painting. By layering, erasing and re-working his images, he tries to create a language which is evoked by more formal aspects, such as colours, lines, shapes, and textures. The use of discarded textiles or wood is a distinguishing feature within his works.

Cabrillos Jacobsen’s paintings show figures, whose origins are difficult to pin down. His work can be seen as a research of the spaces in between; being half this, being half that, being half here, being half there. It serves as a metaphor of being outside and inside. What can our personal histories and cultural identity teach us? How do we relate as locals, as foreigners, as tourists or even as expats? Where do we really belong? The people in Cabrillos Jacobsen’s paintings are nevertheless ‘vibing’ and seem to be enjoying each other's company and their surroundings. They have a contemplative and relaxed attitude and seem to take things in their stride.

Daniel Cabrillos Jacobsen (1996) is a Danish-Filipino artist born and raised in Copenhagen, Denmark. He earned a BFA from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 2023. In 2024 he was nominated for the Royal Award for Contemporary Painting at the Royal Palace Amsterdam. He is currently based in Atlanta, pursuing an MFA at the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design at Georgia State University.

Recent solo exhibitions include 'Moonlight Bunny Napping' at Dürst Britt & Mayhew; 'Yesterday as in Tomorrow' at Municipal Bonds, San Francisco, US; 'Holiday Activation, Echo Contemporary, Atlanta, US; ‘Wanderlust’ at Chaxartxams, Amsterdam. Recent group exhibitions include ‘Act II: The Observatory’ at Ombrella in Copenhagen. Work by Cabrillos Jacobsen is held in private and public collections, including the AkzoNobel Art Foundation and the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Art Collection.

Exhibitions