DANIEL DOMIG | The Songs we Forget to Sing

DANIEL DOMIG
The Songs We Forget to Sing

What makes us human? Enlightenment suggests it’s our ability to think: to reason ourselves into and out of problems, and solve dilemmas in relationships and logistics. This approach of taking control has led to many innovations in science and medicine, and has allowed for a global village to emerge.

Yet, when we observe our communities, we find everything but enduring peace and happiness. To regain perspective, we opt for control and strategy instead of poetry and intuition. But what if the world isn’t something to understand, but an experience to undergo? Perhaps the artists and poets of our time can help us recover what we’ve lost.

In our conversation, Daniel Domig observes: "In our most primordial needs — our longing for beauty, friendship, and intimacy — there are fewer differences between us and those we deem 'the others.' We all need a sense of belonging, of connection."

So where, then, do we find moments of sharing this vital truth? It can’t be a coincidence that many religions and spiritual traditions have rituals that call for singing and dancing to make sense of life. The rhythms and melodies of songs disclose something essential about a world we too readily dissect with logic, labels, and categories. All forms of poetry attempt to do this — to hold a world full of tension and contradiction without letting it fall apart.

Our growth as a community will not come by annihilating the fragments we don’t like but by embracing those irritations — by acknowledging the beautiful, sometimes challenging truth that we need the “other,” the “stranger,” the “enemy” to learn what it means to love. Maybe even to love our “selves”? For isn’t it those aspects we hate in ourselves that we notice too quickly in others, leading us to judge and expel?

Above all else, this is what art should commit to: to hold, without preference, the fullness of our relationships by tenderly receiving the parts of our human nature we would most like to repress. Art should not be a refuge from the ugliness of the world or a place of oblivion or distraction. On the contrary, painting, music, and poetry are practices of learning to love better in the midst of uncertainty. Any artform that does not aspire to unfurl these complexities is not worth your time.

Luckily, the work of Austrian painter Daniel Domig is. His selection of works in this new show, The Songs We Forget to Sing, is a dedication to the moments of everyday beauty that hide between the cracks. Domig's figures seem to be just waking up, taking their first steps after a short night’s rest or an afternoon nap, holding their latest dreams as tenderly as one would hold a coffee mug. They sit in silence, allowing their innermost selves to speak, hum, and sing themselves into existence — knowing full well that the clutter and noises of the day will soon attempt to drown out the whispers of a world made whole.

Go see these mesmerizing paintings and let yourself be seen by them. It’s astonishing how comforting it can be to stand before art that allows you to be in process, even when conflicted. And if you see what I saw when I visited these works in Domig’s studio, you might just walk away humming a quiet song you’d forgotten the melody to.

Sandra Boyd, Vienna 2025

Daniel Domig’s third solo presentation at Diana Lowenstein, The Songs We Forget to Sing, marks another significant milestone in his rapidly growing international career. Over the years, his work has gained widespread recognition, with exhibitions in Australia, China, and Europe, as well as participation in prestigious events such as the Vienna Art Week and the Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair. Domig is celebrated for his introspective and multi-layered approach to painting, which delves into themes of language, memory, and the human condition. His pieces are held in private and public collections across Europe, USA, Australia and Asia, affirming his reputation as one of the most thought-provoking contemporary artists of his generation. In March 2025, Domig's latest publication, STRANGER FAMILY, will be released by Verlag für Moderne Kunst (www.vfmk.org).