There is an unhindered spontaneity and raw energy found in almost all quick sketches and doodles that is incredibly engaging and nearly impossible to reproduce in more thoughtful and laborious artistic pursuits. When it feels like nothing is at stake, at least artistically, our minds can free up and relax yielding new psychological and spatial territory that might be impossible to find otherwise. Mairikke Dau embraces this sense freedom from overthinking and has been an avid doodler since childhood. Her longterm habit of sketching without preconceived notions or preplanning directly infuses the freeform compositions and images she more grandly renders in oil paint.

In deep contrast to her openness in allowing images and shapes to find her while intuitively drawing, Dau employees an almost military-like precision in her painting practice. Attention is paid to every detail and surface, and she repeatedly hand paints every single edge of every single shape on her linen canvases without the use Artist Tape. Layers of color-saturated oil paint are slowly applied and built up over time leading to painted edges that join in a way any painter would instantly recognize was painstaking and tedious; the very opposite of a “doodle”. Dau’s complete process from start to finish is yin and yang, resulting in a beautiful and strange harmony between.

Dau creates fascinating new worlds in her oil paintings where everything, and everyone, is connected quite literally by the outlines and borders shared. Languid curled figures share painted edges with hallucinatory clouds, landscapes and plants of unknown origin. Mountains meld into charm necklaces, vintage lamps, abstract shapes and kitty cats. Even when subtle details and flourishes are added, the silhouettes of her images remain primary. Dau’s free associations drift from recognizable to completely otherworldly and are executed with swift confidence. Each canvas seems to have an overarching mood and feel, softly referencing everything from holidays to art history.

Mairikke Dau (b. 1979, San Francisco, CA) received her BFA from The University of California Santa Cruz in 2001 and a MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2013. Dau’s work has recently been exhibited at Harper’s (NYC) in 2021; SHRINE (NYC) in 2020; Sardine (Brooklyn, NY in  2019 and Safe Gallery (Brooklyn, NY) in 2016.