Born in Köthen/ Anhalt in 1973, Daniel M Thurau initially studied law before finally deciding to pursue art in 1998 when he founded the kunstgesellschaft eiland with the two painters Peter and Torsten Ruehle. From 2008-2009 he studied drawing at Norwich University College of the Arts, then went to the HFBK Hamburg and studied painting with Werner Büttner and Jutta Koether from 2010-2013. His paintings are strongly influenced by German Expressionism, he uses bold colors that create an excessive, artificial reality with exaggerated and sometimes very obviously grotesque forms. The mainly figurative works contain elements that refer to comic-like figures.