Born in 1973 in Mexico, Daniel Lara grew up moving to a new town every two years for most of his childhood. Growing up without the reassuring anchor of a hometown and recognizing that he was part of a disappearing middle class in a polarized Mexico gave Lara a broad view of the universality of human experience that still influences his art today.

Painting is Lara’s main medium, although he has also made multi-media murals, engravings and jewelry. Lately, his interest in graphic design has led him to experiment with animation and video.

Lara simplifies his subject matter until a bare and basic quality shows through. His artworks grab the unconscious of the observer and invite him/her to pause in the twilight between rational and irrational thought, where common stereotypes are challenged with a gentle tug.

Lara received his BFA in 1998 from the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico.  In 2001, he received a scholarship from Puebla’s Secretaria de Cultura to study storyboarding and drawing at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. His art has been exhibited in the USA, Canada and Mexico.  He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.