Danya Akulin is a contemporary artist working primarily in large-format pencil drawing.
The artist creates conceptual drawings that he defines as "aesthetic minimalism." He works in monumental formats, frequently turning to landscape motifs that carry an unsettling sense of discord between humanity and the sublime forces of nature.
Danya Akulin considers pencil a more expressive medium than brush: in his words, "a line drawn with pencil is many times more interesting… and can convey far more information."
Danya Akulin's works embody drawing as an independent artistic statement. In his monochrome pieces, he explores the quiet power of landscape graphics. His black-and-white works are built on the interplay of light and shadow — he creates images in charcoal, graphite, and pencil on paper, which he then mounts onto canvas. An elegant tranquility emerges from the contrast between close-up perspective and the scale of the works. The images are part abstract, part figurative: landscapes transform into sensuous, meditative canvases.
Danya Akulin was born in Leningrad and lives and works in Berlin. Twenty years ago, he left his studies at the N.K. Roerich Art College and, after passing a highly competitive selection process, joined the class of Professor Georg Baselitz at the Berlin University of the Arts, where his mentor was Daniel Richter.
Danya Akulin's works have been featured in a number of international exhibition projects and are regularly shown in Russia, Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark, and the United States, as well as held in private collections and museum holdings.
The artist has participated in the 6th Kunstverein Eislingen Art Biennale in Germany, as well as in the group exhibition DreamLand at In-Gate Gallery in Brussels. Other notable exhibitions include projects at the Bröhan Museum (Berlin, Germany, 2023), SizeMatters MORE Drawing at Museum MORE (Gorssel, Netherlands, 2024), Matrix-Ost at the Kesselhaus Herzberge museum (Berlin, Germany, 2025), and Natura Naturans at the Basel Art Center (Basel, Switzerland, 2025).