Dan Mair has a formal education in the fine arts having studied a foundation at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design and his bachelor and master degrees at University of the Arts London.

 

In 2017 he created the artistic alter ego Stanley Black as a mechanism to return to the art world. Having enrolled in Wimbledon College of Arts under this alias, his aim was to explore being and identity through the use of persona. During his research his work became increasingly politically driven by issues of freedom of speech within the academy and the wider cultural environment.

 

Stanley Black describes himself as a political artist but in the left leaning sphere of the art world culturally, he promotes the wrong type of politics and his work has been deemed unacceptable because it doesn't adhere to the current moral paradigm. Although Matisse wanted his art to be like a comfortable armchair Stanley Black would prefer his to be likened to a bed of nails. Presently, Stanley Black is concentrating on his object making and is primary concerned with the questioning of contemporary art as a pursuit and the role of the artist. Often working with found items and prefabricated goods he tries to explore the function, use and value of art and by doing so question his own function, use and value as an artist.

 

Stanley Black continues his adventures in the artworld whilst sometimes exploring his wrong-think but his main aim is to try and gain respectability and acceptance