Daniel Byrd is an Atlanta-based painter whose work explores the formal language of abstraction through a methodical, building-block approach. His practice investigates the interplay between contradiction and affirmation, using repetition, structure, and shape to examine how systems can both impose order and allow for improvisation.
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Through a visual process he refers to as a “woven equation,” Byrd creates compositions where color and line interlace, overlap, and appear to stack. These interactions generate shaped paintings that break away from the traditional square and rectangle, expanding the spatial possibilities of the medium.
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Trial and error plays a vital role in Byrd’s process, revealing a space where decisions are continuously rearranged, reinterpreted, and adapted. Paint is applied through a glazing technique—thin, transparent layers of acrylic that nestle into the contours of each form—creating depth, subtle shifts in color, and an illusion of movement. Each shape maintains its own identity while participating in a larger, cohesive system. Byrd’s work lives in this tension: individual and collective, rigid and flexible, fixed and in motion.