The multi-disciplinary work of Dutch artist Daniël van Nes illuminates an undefined world that may be waiting for us in the future or for some already exist in the present. Heaven or hell, you can decide, while frightening and mysterious it is also tempting and compelling. A parallel universe that once observed slowly but surely creeps into our minds, contaminating everything it touches like a greasy black stain. His is an opera-noir world populated with lost and lonely creatures constantly driven by their own fears and desires. The real replaced by the virtual, oversaturation through the media and the ever-present TV screens with marketing messages that seep into our lives and dreams not unlike religious slogans.

Van Nes' fascination with the dawn of the Industrial Age and how it changed society forever is reflected in imagery inspired by the Victorians but paired with machinery and strange apparatuses that could come straight out of a Jules Verne story, a sort of futurism as imagined in the 19th century. His characters are trying to protect what is dear to them while slowly but surely losing hold of it, just as it is getting harder and harder to make out truth and reality in a world that is becoming more virtual every day. Advertising is the new religion, replacing meaning with empty slogans and religious icons with brand logos – van Nes' work is about confession and absolution in a world where Gods and angels are replaced by marketing rules, his consumer criticism is hidden within ancient-looking frames and real antique containers.

Daniël was educated at the Royal Academy of Arts in Antwerp, Belgium. Looking for a challenge, he ended up making wood engravings using a centuries-old technique, and then decided to turn to a decidedly modern medium: plexiglass. His engravings are made manually, without the use of electrical tools. The result of his meticulously crafted work – he often spends over a month working on a single piece of relatively small size – can only be seen by use of light. His technique has sometimes been described as "illuminated engraving". Using antique glass domes that were once used to store dried flowers or other memorabilia, he builds lamps that have a magical effect: you can only see the image they contain when you turn them on.

Born in 1972, in Terneuzen, the Netherlands, Daniël attended classes at academies and art schools from a young age. He was nominated for Dutch Artist of the Year and has exhibited extensively in galleries and art fairs around the world. His work is in the collection of Jonathan Davis of KORN and he has painted live on stage with Amanda Palmer.