David Hanes (b. 1987) is a painter of Canadian and American roots who redirected himself toward a more nature-rooted painting practice after several years of digital and conceptual art making. Based in Berlin since 2014, he spends a significant amount of his time travelling around the world, which directly informs his paintings.

Best described as nomadic, his artworks begin as plein- air sketches, accompanying him during his travels to later serve as "Momentaufnahme" (German for snapshots). Later, once settled into a studio or residency to contemplate the collected studies as "souvenirs" or "conduits" to his felt experiences and emotions, they transform into oil paintings or in some cases watercolours. This process puts time and distance between the moment of the sketch and the canvas, adding a non-observed layer made only by memory, revealing a dynamic interplay between immediacy and contemplation.

Recalling the likes of Kandinsky, Gauguin, Munch, Kirchner, and other early modern painters, Hanes strives to capture only the moment's feelings, energies, and emotions he is experiencing at that given time. Examining his journey to and from nature, his paintings use colour to explore the ideas and emotions he is having, with what become rawly expressive paintings.

Talking with Hanes, the language of metaphysical concepts to convey a deeply felt connection to the currents of life becomes more apparent—beyond the immediate aesthetical or physical nature of his work, there are questions attached to his process like what is time? On what plane does it exist? We can argue that time is a human construct, what is happening by revisiting these 'captured' moments, and do these moments live on inside and outside of us by continuing to understand them?