Dan Munkus is an artist in flux. After having devoted his working life to making a career in music, a health scare in late 2023 prompted a serious and ongoing bout of self reflection. The result of that reflection has been a return for Munkus to his initial artistic love of visual mark making. The son of an engineer and an accountant, his work is almost always a conversation between his inherited sense of precision and practicality and his own desire for spiritual and creative freedom. Dan holds a BFA in Fine Arts Practice from the University of California Berkeley, an MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts from Brooklyn College, and is currently enrolled at Teachers College, Columbia University in the Studio Practice for Art Educators M.A. Program. He makes work out of Peekskill, NY where he lives with his beautiful wife and two daughters.
	
	For pricing information or other inquiries, Dan can be contacted at dmunkus@gmail.com.

  • I use various methods of abstraction to explore meditative fields of experience. From those ephemeral and changing spaces, I’m shown the inner mechanics of my own mind, what I call the aesthetics of cognition. The works I arrive at, more often than not, express how my mind works functionally, its movement and feeling.

    Forms and shapes arise laying the groundwork for an internal alphabet, or inner language.

    These works stand apart in tone and tenor from other more content-based works I present. Though more rare, my content works emerge from memory and often, struggle. They present what I’m secretly thinking about, what I’m dealing with. Each one teaches me something about myself. Together these two practices, one mechanical and one emotional, form a balanced picture of discovery for me, allowing me to learn and grow with each studio day and each mark made.

    Somewhere in there, there is a wholeness. A wholeness forgotten and remembered.

    I leave behind objects proving I was here, something for my daughters to sift through. An inner map of who I am, and a literal leaving of marks. An ever-changing obituary of agency.

  • Dan Munkus is a painter, musician, and interdisciplinary artist with extensive experience in visual arts, music composition, production and engineering, and cross disciplinary collaborative art making.

    Dan was born in Winfield, IL and transplanted to Southern California at an early age setting the foundation for a lifelong search for, and obsession with, the idea of “home”. His earliest experience of feeling a sense of belonging came in his early twenties while attending college at the University of California, Berkeley (BFA Fine Arts Practice 2001). The wide ranging counter culture of the Bay Area merged with the student body’s and faculty’s sense of intellectual curiosity was a point of awakening for Munkus.

    This period led Munkus to the discovery of Zen Buddhism and a devoted meditation practice lasting seven years. While no longer a practicing Buddhist, the Zen sensibility and search for inner knowledge and understanding, even the aesthetic of Zen paintings, still influence his work and life twenty years later.

    Dan moved to New York City in his late twenties where he fully invested himself in the act of music making in all its forms. In 2013 he earned his MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts at Brooklyn College where he formed more long term friendships and collaborative connections while working in the theatrical and performing arts.

    Emerging from a health scare in the fall of 2023, now married with two children, Dan has shifted his attention away from the grind of music production to seek out a creative life that is both robust and conducive to healthy living. That shift has led Munkus back to his earliest passion of mark making and a deeply felt and surprising painting practice.

    Dan makes work in Peekskill, NY where he lives with his beautiful wife and two children. He has released many musical works under his given name, with his band Old Robes, as The Atomic Boxer, more recently as Polka Dot Deli, and working as a producer/engineer with other artists. He has made work internationally and has toured across the United States performing his solo works of music. He is preparing for two-person and solo shows of his paintings in 2026. He can be found most days painting in his backyard studio, tinkering with music, or at the gym. For inquiries please contact Dan at dmunkus@gmail.com

  • BAU - Two Person Show with Rachel Dove - Feb. 14 - March 8, 2026

    Macy Art Gallery - Capstone - July 20 - August 13, 2026

    Club Fit Jefferson Valley - Solo Exhibition - September 2026

  • Kinosaito Community Art Benefit Show - Dec. 2025

    Primer - Macy Art Gallery - Group - Sept. 2 - Oct. 19, 2025

    Hendrick Hudson Free Library - Solo Exhibition - Sept. 4 - Sept. 29, 2025

    BAU Gallery - GRIT - Group - Aug 9 - Sept 7, 2025 - Winner - Two Person Show Awardee 2026

    John C. Hart Memorial Library - Solo Exhibition - March 2025

    Kinosaito Community Art Benefit Show - Dec. 2024

    Club Fit Jefferson Valley - Solo Show - Nov. 2024

    Super Secret Projects - Personal Protest - Group Show - Sept. 2024

    Polka Dot Deli - Oft Come Devil - Aug. 2024

    Kinosaito Community Art Benefit Show - Dec. 2023

    No Grudges - "I Need Somebody" - Aug. 2023 (co-engineer)

    The Atomic Boxer and Oh My Friend - Fist and Stone - June 2023

    Dan Munkus / John Jannone - The Edge of the High Trace (Animation by John Jannone) - Winner Best Experimental Animation at Experimental, Dance, and Music Film Festival, 2022

    Rachel Epp - "Cool Kids in the Cheap Seats" - June 2022 (composer, co-produced with Tommy White, engineer/mix engineer)

    Aviva Jaye - "So Close" - May 2022 (co-produced with Tommy White, engineer/mix engineer)

    Dan Munkus - "Joy Patterns" - Jan 2022

    Dan Munkus - The Edge of the High Trace - Nov. 2021

    Subtle Soup Records - 2013-2020 - Founder/Principal

    Old Robes / John Jannone - "Soldier Online" Animation - Winner Best Animation Feedback Experimental Film Festival

    Old Robes - The Spider and the Spectator - April 2018

    Robot Immigrants - My Heart is a Traveler - April 2013

    Old Robes - Past the Suitors - Nov. 2012

    The Nights Bears - Clytemnestra - Oct. 2012

    The Night Bears - Meat & Light - Sept. 2012

    Diverse Plots Ensemble - Diverse Plots - May 2012

    The Night Bears - Assumptions Made in the Dark - Dec. 2011

    Artsbridge Scholarship Recipient - Spring 2001