Artist Daniel Kojo Schrade brings years of teaching and professional experience to his position a...Artist Daniel Kojo Schrade brings years of teaching and professional experience to his position as a faculty member in painting and drawing at College of the Atlantic.

Schrade’s Afrofuturistic work explores the Black diaspora through an abstract-modernist lens. His art, he says, is significantly research based and nurtured by a complex culmination of information from his own cultural archive. Schrade searches for the future by thinking critically about the past, mediating the information on a canvas or in a performance space.

“My work provides space for multiple cultural dialogues in which the consideration of the conditions and options of such a dialogue is just as important as the dialogue itself,” Schrade says. “Icons, signs, letters and figurative fragments, which aggregated appear homogeneous, carry sub-texts within multiple semantic levels.”

Daniel Kojo Schrade, by any means I, 2003, oil, acrylic, and charcoal on canvas, 71 x...Daniel Kojo Schrade, "by any means I," 2003, oil, acrylic, and charcoal on canvas, 71 x 94in (fragment).

Schrade, born into an artistic German family, trained when young as a printmaker in Berlin. He then studied fine arts in Munich and Cuenca, Spain, where he met painter Antonio Saura and found a passion for non-representational painting . He has held positions as a lecturer at the Cusanuswerk Foundation, a visiting lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology College of Art Ghana, an assistant professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich Germany, and a professor of art at Hampshire College.

Schrade says that he was drawn to COA by the school’s creative, collaborative nature. As a professor, he assumes the role of an observer and listener, encouraging students to find their own spaces and voices.

“After working in classes with me, I hope students can claim that they found what really matters to them, whatever the visual language they’re using to communicate that,” Schrade says.

Daniel Kojo Schrade, Afronauts-2C08, 2008, oil, acrylic, and charcoal on canvas, 52 x...Daniel Kojo Schrade, "Afronauts-2C08," 2008, oil, acrylic, and charcoal on canvas, 52 x 72in.

Among Schrade’s early influences are American abstract expressionists such as Robert Motherwell, the Ghanaian artist Atta Kwami, and artists associated with the art informel, a distinctly European branch of abstract expressionism that emerged in the 1950s, represented by painters such as Antonio Tapies or Serge Poliakoff. His work is featured in numerous permanent collections such as those of the Museo de Cuenca in Spain, MACO in Mexico, Mead Art Museum Amherst, the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung in Munich, and the Morat Collection Freiburg.

Daniel Kojo Schrade, listenings 3, 2018, oil, acrylic, and charcoal on canvas, 70 x 5...Daniel Kojo Schrade, "listenings 3," 2018, oil, acrylic, and charcoal on canvas, 70 x 50in.

Schrade is a high-caliber artist and professor who will greatly enhance the COA community, says COA Provost Ken Hill.

“We are very enthused to have Daniel join our arts and design faculty. He brings a bounty of experience, talent, and energy to the position, has a unique, compelling style to his work, and is a dynamic, dedicated teacher,” Hill says.

Schrade’s process always entails playful risk-taking, with the research functioning as an anchor to keep him from getting swept away during the development of a piece, he says.

“I think it’s really important to engage in a working process where things are not 100% planned out,” he says. “If I prime a canvas yellow and, after several layers, end up painting it blue, the yellow will still matter. All layers and their content, abstract or representational, simultaneously matter — independent from their materiality and position.”

With Afrofuturism, Schrade says he is recontextualizing the past in order to better understand the challenging present, while considering future concepts. He uses abstract expressive gestures, the human figure, and icons to tell his complex stories.

“I am interested in exploring the edges and readability of a piece and challenging and combining those things,” he says.

Daniel Kojo Schrade, Genu, 2020, oil, acrylic, and charcoal on canvas, 34 x 48in.Daniel Kojo Schrade, "Genu," 2020, oil, acrylic, and charcoal on canvas, 34 x 48in.