Daniel Zeller’s obsessively layered paintings and drawings exploit the visual and compositional potentials of texture and line. Using only graphite or ink and acrylic paint on paper, Zeller is grounded in traditional media, but his insistence on a limited range of materials encourages him to push their compositional limits. His rhythmic lines cohere into forms that resemble microscopic views of organic matter or topographic perspectives of landscapes. Though some works allude to actual sites, such as mining operations or even the Vatican, Zeller’s paintings and drawings are perpetually grounded in the formal properties of line and texture. “While the embedded information acts as something of a scaffold or a seed from which the work develops, the process of drawing remains central and is what ultimately determines the result,” he has said.