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2014 International Fine Arts Competition 2nd Place Winner
Sid Daniels was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, and as a young boy he remembers the stick figure doodles he created in the margins of his mother's Cosmetology books, (the study of Hairdressing & Grooming). During his adolescence, while working part time at his uncle's shoe store, he discovered a treasure trove of dusty unopened boxes of shoes from the 1940s and '50s. This connection is where his fascination with shoes began. Sid's early paintings and drawings, created during his Ontario College of Art years circa 1970-1974, combined elements of theater, fashion, music, theater, and architecture. His fascination with nostalgia, Art Deco, Brazilian music, and MGM movie musicals starring Carmen Miranda, Judy Garland, Cyd Charise and Gene Kelly to name a few, were the catalysts that would play a dominant role in shaping the direction of his future works.
Sid Daniels' relocation to New York City in 1979, during the height and euphoria of the Disco Era, spawned his "cirque-du-samba" large scale works of women and fashion. In 1981 he was asked to place a painting on the set of the motion picture "Tootsie." That same year, Sid designed the shopping bag and scarf for the Ann Taylor stores and a series of album and CD covers for CBS, GRP, JVC and Arista Record labels. In 1983 he designed the concept for artistic display fixtures for the fashionable Fiorucci store on 57th St. He was the first to create wooden cut out figures. Sid designed and created the murals for the Touche Nightclubs in New Jersey, the Zanzibar nightclub in New York City, and the Holiday Inn ballroom murals in Mt. Kisco, New York. An interior designer who spotted the artist at his opening at New York's On The Wall Gallery flew him to Yokahama, Japan, where he created a mural for the "Las Paras" Caribbean restaurant. In 1990 his calendar, 'Brazilian Follies' was published by Landmark Calendars.
In the 1990's Sid designed a series of commemorative posters for the New York Philharmonic, the 1992 Arthur Murray US Ballroom Championships, the Gay Games 4, the 1993 fundraiser 'A Demand Performance' at the New York State Theater for the Design Industries Foundation Fights Aids (DIFFA) and Absolute Vodka.
Upon relocating to South Beach, Miami Beach in 1997, Daniels created a Canadian national ad for nescafe Coffee Canada Brazilian Brand, and posters for First Night Miami Beach 2001, the Carnival Cruise Lines, The Anchor Shops, the Kentucky Derby, Windham Hotels and Resorts and Art in Public Places 'Flamingos on the Beach 2002'. In 2004 he designed the official poster for Miami Beach Festival of the Arts. In 2006 two works were published by Grand Image Publishing for The Poster Collection.
Sid Daniels’ trademark stiletto-heeled cirque-du-samba females, outlandish costuming, rich saturated palette, sharp crisp lines and show stopping graphics remain signatures to his style, which he terms ‘Latin Deco’. “It’s Art Deco meets the Girl from Ipanema.” “My infatuation with the World of Burlesque, vintage Big Band Swing, Brazilian Bossa Nova, Haute Couture fashion, and MGM movie musicals circa 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, are all catalysts that play an important role in presenting my work as a theatrical showcase that moves to music.”
In 2010, 'Phobias, Fantasies and Flavors,' the theme of his solo show at the Sol Gallery, Miami Beach revealed a darker side of his personality. Sid's provocative and exotic collages on paper were visual statements about the human condition, sexuality, and our dysfunctional society. In 2011 he returned to painting with square sized format canvases, paying homage to Busby Berkeley, (the Hollywood choreographer circa 1930s and '40s). This contemporary series revolved around the idea of the kaleidoscope. From 2013 through 2014, Sid Daniels' captivating 'Parasol Series,' a study in camouflage and repetition, merged inventive surface textures with striking geometric patterns, juxtaposed with a repeated image, creating the illusion of a runway fashion show.
Sid Daniels' is currently published in The Great Big Book of Fashion Illustration by Martin Dawber, 100 Southern Artists, Schiffer Publishing, and Stars and Stripes: The American Flag in Contemporary Art, Schiffer Publishing.
"My work is in a continuous flow of reinvention."
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