About

Artist Profile: Dan Verkys

Name: Dan Verkys
Location: Victoria, Australia
Roles: Visual artist, writer, musician

Dan Verkys is a multidisciplinary artist, he describes himself as a “creator / imaginer” a dabbler in art, literature and sound. He has been creating handcrafted digital art since the late 1990s. Over more than 25 years, he has developed a rich, imaginative practice that spans visual art, writing, world-building, and ambient music.

He is known for being intensely private, however he sees his art as therapeutic: a way to process inner turmoil, to escape, but also to connect. He’s spoken about how art has “given him a voice,” helping him articulate feelings and experiences that are otherwise difficult to express. His writing and ambient music deepen this connection, offering viewers and listeners a fuller, immersive experience.

Dan Verkys’s art is an exploration of mortality, memory, and the liminal spaces between life and death. He often uses skeletons, skulls, and skeletal figures not as symbols of morbidity, but as metaphors for transformation, transcendence, and the enduring self.

His “Archipelago” series, for example, envisions an afterlife populated by skeletal inhabitants — a peaceful, dreamlike realm where souls journey beyond physical form.

In contrast, his darker works lean into nightmare and suggestion rather than gore. Instead of explicit horror, he builds tension through surreal atmospheres: twisted landscapes, strange architectures, uncanny lighting, and glitch-like distortions. These images are grounded in his lived struggles — hope, loss, anxiety, and an ongoing search for meaning.

Artistic Style & Themes

• Dark Fantasy & Surrealism: Dan’s visual work is rooted in dark fantasy, combining 3D rendering and photographic manipulation to create dreamlike, otherworldly scenes.
• Skeleton Motif: A recurring motif in his art is the skeleton – not just as a symbol of death, but as a vessel for exploration. He has built a kind of afterlife mythos around this, notably in what he calls the “Great Skeleton Archipelago.”
• World-building: Beyond individual pieces, Verkys creates cohesive fictional worlds. His “Infinite Black” universe is a dark, machine-hell dimension that features in his art and short stories.
• Introspective & Cosmic: In his book Inner Space, he visualizes the journey of skeletal souls moving into pure galactic energy — a meditation on transcendence, unity, and self-exploration.
• Mixed Media & Journaling: He keeps small visual journals (A6-sized) where he sketches, writes, and experiments – a method that feeds directly into his larger works.

Impact & Significance

• Emotional Resonance: Though his subjects are often macabre or fantastical, his work is deeply human. He channels personal vulnerability into his art, using skeletons and surreal worlds to process themes like grief, love, and identity.
• Cross-disciplinary practice: Verkys bridges traditional digital art with painting, literature, and sound, giving him a rich, layered creative output.
• Creative Ecosystem: His world-building is more than illustration — it’s a narrative universe. The “Infinite Black” dimension, the Archipelago, the Dreamscape — these are not just visuals but part of a broader mythos that he builds across mediums.
• Independence & Authenticity: Rather than relying entirely on traditional pathways, he has self-directed many of his projects (web, books, exhibitions) and collaborated with poets, musicians, and other artists.
• Verkys’s work isn’t just visually striking — it emerges from real human experiences (anxiety, aging, existential dread) and so has emotional weight.
• Community Resonance: Through his art, music, and writing, he has connected with a global audience. Despite his private nature, his work provides a touchpoint for people who resonate with introspective, dark fantastical aesthetics and existential wonder. Through social media (Instagram, Facebook) he’s built a dedicated following.

Why His Work Matters

• Dan Verkys operates in a rare space where dark fantasy isn’t just aesthetic — it’s a vehicle for self-reflection and imaginative world-building. His skeleton imagery, rather than being purely gothic or morbid, becomes a symbol of transformation and continuity. By combining visual art, writing, and music, he offers a multi-sensory entry into his inner cosmos.
• He’s also significant as an independent creator who remains true to his vision. Rather than going through conventional commercial channels, he has carved out a personal, mythic universe that invites others in — not just to view, but to think, dream, and feel.