About
Daniel Eisenhut, born 1974, grew up in Israel. After moving to Switzerland in 1997, he trained under the Scottish artist Andrew Ward and the Korean artist Kathy Choi.
For Eisenhut, art should create space for human authenticity and reflect everything that is human: weakness, strength, pain and beauty. His work touches and unsettles social norms by turning attention to marginalised groups and overlooked parts of society, making them visible through his own way of seeing.
His portraits are made in private, personal sittings. They combine a person’s outward appearance with what Eisenhut intuitively perceives in that particular moment. His portraits are therefore not copies of a face, but a rendering of what he perceives.
Daniel Eisenhut teaches art in his studio and throughout Switzerland and neighbouring countries. His work has been shown in galleries and museums in St. Gallen, Zurich, Geneva, Munich and London, and is held in private collections across Europe and the Middle East.
Selected Media Coverage
Projects 2013–2016 SRF Kulturplatz
Lipstick Leaders 2016–2019 TEDxZurich · CNN Money Switzerland · Glanz & Gloria · Annabelle
About Eisenhuts Art:
Daniel chooses to hide nothing in his art, in an effort to share his truth and that of his subjects with the world. He finds beauty in every aspect of a person: in the failures, sorrows, and uncomfortable truths, in triumphs, happiness, and love. There is joy in seeing each individual as they are, and how together they form a community. A joy that Eisenhut strives to bring across in his art. This is the reason why Daniel Eisenhut creates all his portraits from “live” subjects. Only by sitting before a person, seeing everything unedited and “raw”, can he portray people unfiltered. It is through this intimacy with his subjects that Eisenhut is able to get to know each person he portrays. Allowing for them to open up on a deeper level, and for him to better see and convey their essence. His live drawing sessions are pivotal to his process of creating authentic portraits of people.
Eisenhut makes visible the beauty in the underappreciated and overlooked. Allowing his audience to look at things in a new light. By bringing people together at his shows and through his portraiture, he helps to spark new conversations and connections. Through his art, he promotes action to change, by provoking meaningful conversation through art.
In addition to his work as an artist, Daniel Eisenhut has led and taught creative workshops that focus on team and community building. These workshops focus on bringing people together and have included up to 100 people. Companies like UBS, Google, and Zürich Insurance have benefited from the workshops Daniel Eisenhut has led. They have even been used to bring people from conflicting cultures and political parties together, as in the youth groups he worked with the Kinderdorf-Pestalozzi. Community is key to Daniel Eisenhut’s pursuits, art, working, and learning together is the starting of building a community.
Now, with over 20 years of work, Daniel Eisenhut’s passion is just as vibrant as ever. He has a number of projects to his name, including the successful “Lipstick Leaders», which was featured on the Swiss television channel: SRF. Throughout his career as an artist, the driving force in everything he does remains authenticity. Authenticity is the foundation of Eisenhut’s goal of sparking a human connection with his art. There is a profound beauty to honesty. Eisenhut believes that by showing that very beauty he can bring people together in their shared truth.
Daniel Eisenhut’s creative ambition has led to the conception of many portrait-based projects. This is where his heart lies, with people. Interest in the human experience and community makes up the heart of every one of his projects. With each of his projects, he shows us how we are all connected. Through this connection, a community is made through his art.
“Only authentic self-awareness can bring sustainable communal awareness.”
In a talk with Martin Lumsden, Daniel talks about his path to becoming an Artist and his thoughts and philosophy behind his art projects