Evelin Daus

Evelin Daus was born in Hanover, completed her secondary education in Kiel and Lisbon, and subsequently studied art for three years at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Upon returning to Berlin, she studied architecture at the Technical University of Berlin and later ran her own architectural practice for around 30 years. At the same time, she attended the Academy of Painting Berlin, graduating as a master student of Ute Wöllmann in the field of painting. In 2026, she received the Lesser Ury Art Prize. Evelin Daus’s painting draws inspiration from Surrealism. Her work is also shaped by international experiences gained through encounters with the cultures and landscapes of various countries. She explores themes such as the simultaneity of time within the enduring presence of consciousness, the blurring of boundaries between dream and reality, and the diverse forms of wisdom that different peoples have developed in their relationship with nature, life, death, and technology. The juxtaposition of irreconcilable elements within her pictorial spaces challenges the viewer to engage with life’s enigmas. Her images are not about assigning meaning to everything; rather, they allow mysteries to remain mysteries, keep the door open for new discoveries within the work, and constantly question established orders. This resistance to definitive interpretation or unambiguous meaning can be understood in the spirit of the Frankfurt School: as a stand against the human drive to subject everything to instrumental rationality—thereby putting an end to the act of questioning. At times, the work also elicits a smile, inviting the viewer to look at life not merely with severity and seriousness, but to join the artist in a lively interplay of interaction and imagination that borders on the comic. Evelin Daus has exhibited primarily in Germany and Portugal and has been internationally represented by the LDXART Gallery since 2026.