Daerb Teews (b. 1998, Blackpool, England) is a self taught artist, creating visually dynamic portraits and scenes of large-eyed characters the artist describes as "aliens". Influenced by the constant evolution of surrealism and the New Contemporary Art Movement, Daerb seeks to reinvent the genre by focusing less on the pop culture that defines Lowbrow Art and the visual storytelling that is attributed to Narrative Art - but rather by exploring the relationship of time and emotions, particularly concerning the past and future in a way that correlates to the painting process itself. The artist delves into conceptual storms accompanied by themes of destruction, isolation, containment, and escape - reflecting inner turmoil via the various layers that make up the painting process. Daerb's refined oil painting technique often accumulates upwards of 30 layers of ultra-thin glazes, highlighting his ability to create minimalist compositions that reflect the chaos of our time on Earth and our desire to know what is coming next.
A distinctive feature in many of Daerb's oil paintings are the inclusion of seemingly organic biomorphic shapes the artist describes as exaggerated forms used to adorn or accompany his characters, hinting at the revelation of internal truths. This is further evident in the artists' adopted creative moniker "Daerb Teews" - a backwards spelling of "sweetbread" - using the organ meat delicacies as a metaphor for the consumption of hidden truths and raw emotions. Through his work, Daerb aims to uncover the complexities of the human experience, inviting viewers to confront the often concealed aspects of their own lives. The artist brings these ideas to life in a lengthy process he describes as "destroying to create, veiling to uncover", resulting in abstract distortions echoing static whispers of memories and sporadic glitches of hope for the future. Each layer of paint contributes to covering up the previous layer just enough to see remnants of what came before - synthesizing the connection between the past and future.