Dan Flores

Dan Flores is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, drawing, sculpture and installation. His practice is rooted in a lifelong fascination with people, identity and transformation, drawing on an unusually varied creative career that has included hairdressing, make-up artistry, fashion, education and set design.

 

Born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, to a Norfolk mother and a Hawaiian-American father, Flores grew up feeling both part of and slightly apart from the world around him. Creativity became an outlet from an early age. Long before he considered himself an artist, he was constantly making things: building objects, inventing characters and creating imaginary worlds. While others were out playing football, Flores was filling his bedroom with handmade creations, from life-sized figures to elaborate props and costumes. That instinct to make has never left him.

 

His work is driven by an enduring curiosity about people and the lives they lead. Tattoos, clothing, posture, gesture and expression all act as clues to a deeper story. Recent paintings focus on heavily tattooed figures, intimate relationships and contemporary masculinity, exploring themes of vulnerability, desire, identity and self-expression. Rather than presenting idealised versions of his subjects, Flores is interested in the contradictions people carry and the ways they choose to reveal themselves to the world.

 

Influenced by artists including Stanley Spencer, Edward Burra, Lucian Freud, Frida Kahlo, Marc Chagall and Tom of Finland, his paintings balance observation with imagination. Atmospheric colour palettes, dramatic contrasts of light and shadow, and richly textured surfaces create works that feel both contemporary and timeless. Figures often emerge from muted, weathered backgrounds that suggest memory, theatre or dream-like narrative rather than a specific place or moment.

 

Alongside painting, Flores frequently incorporates sculptural elements, found materials and handmade objects into his practice. His background in hair, make-up and styling continues to inform the way he approaches image-making, often extending beyond the canvas into the creation of props, costumes and environments. Whether designing an exhibition space, constructing an object by hand or developing a painting, he approaches each work as part of a larger visual world.

 

Intuition plays a significant role in his process. Ideas arrive unexpectedly, through conversation, observation, memory or dreams, before being developed through sketchbooks, experimentation and making. While his work often begins with a clear subject, the final piece evolves through layers of colour, texture and association, allowing unexpected connections to emerge.

 

At the heart of Flores' practice is a fascination with transformation: how people shape themselves, how identity is performed, and how art can reveal something hidden beneath the surface. His work invites viewers to look closely, to ask questions and to bring their own experiences to the narratives unfolding before them.

 

For Flores, the most important response to his work is not agreement or admiration, but feeling. Whether a painting is loved, challenged or questioned, he hopes it leaves a lasting impression and encourages a deeper consideration of the people and stories it depicts.