~DANIEL GIORDANO & friends / more pix from the opening . . ‘CELLOPHANE’ / M. DAVID & CO. / with shout-out to: NICHOLAS STEINDORF / HEIDI HOWARD & LIZ PHILLIPS / THE QUEENS MUSEUM
‘CELLOPHANE’ . . . has been extended thru SUN FEB 9, 2020
see: M. DAVID & CO.
ALLIGATOR, ALLIGATOR . . on the wall,
who is the fairest of them . . ALL ?
MORE PHOTOS FROM THE OPENING – JAN 17, 2020
DANIEL GIORDANO, ‘Mon Calamari III’, 2016-2019
detail . . .
yes, that’s an alligator paw.
well, you can’t be squeamish when you come to face-to-face with Daniel Giordano, or . . his work.
it’s not that he challenges you, it’s that he is challenging you !!
animal parts, moldy food, urinal cakes. chain-saw wood carving, found metal, gooey melted plastics.
deep-fried batter, stainless steel. tennis balls. sparklers. dust.
face masks. pipe dreams. clementines. ceramics. resin. things . . both opaque, and shiny. skittery, and dense.
revolting, phosphorescent, and probably, no longer edible.
what’s acceptable, what isn’t / wasn’t, could be / can be.
transcending metaphor and meanings, of which plenty of each abound . .
the poetry, the dance, the grin . . the sheer force to be /
the creative impulse to ‘will’ into being, the crazy wild, even emotional . . imagination that runs through it all,
is like a river, with the heart of a rock.
these pieces don’t sit still, in any sense of the word / even this one,
though it might sit stationary on a block,
it’s base . . is a bowl.
a shiny reflective . . bowl. a big round half-shell of a bowl. a metal bowl cradling what amount to a ‘cultural’ . . explosion.
detail . . .
this is no longer the era of minimalism, or even brute. it’s not just arte povera, or even . . distressed.
and it’s certainly . . not: DIY. it might embrace craft, skills, and a subset of conceptional-ism . . .
but it is always more / and it’s just like breathing, to him.
it reminds me most of . . earth art.
I mean, just that ‘will’ / to PUT . . FORWARD / a ‘stop-in-your-tracks’ sign / held up against the usual suspects,
the usual landscape. the usual landmarks, and the comfort zone . . beacons.
DANIEL, born into full-blooded Italian ancestor / immigrant family genes . . questions the whole status quo of western art history, & comes full circle . . from marble and chiselled realism /
zooms past minimalist & earth art theory, but still holds onto the ‘ego’ creator part, and then re-fired in the newly re-gentrified folk art & craft pathways, comes up:
born in the Hudson Valley, which in itself was birthed & skilled in the manufacturing ‘arts’ of the long gone Industrial era / short-coded here as ‘Vicki’ / the family aunt who most recently ran the business / as a . . post millennial (!!)
who grew up, I’m betting strange and wild, despite his parents’ greatest efforts, when the area re-gentrified big time & exploded with art, and both artists / craftspeople.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say / though it may sound a contradiction . . .
that the ‘heroic’ / ground-breaking abstract, minimal, and even ‘earth art’ of the nearby DIA Foundation had a lot to do with this upstate native son’s powerful . . but loving, cultural – upheaval.
note: the tiny bit of hand-crocheted lace.
Daniel told me, he did it himself . . and, it was “f-cking hard”.
welcome to the crafts world, Daniel !!
bet you won’t find any hand-crochet in the DIA. probably, not even a quilt.
my, how the cultural winds blow, and . . scatter.
which is exactly – how it should be.
it takes layers & layers of thought, and skill . . to explain the drive of our DNA / humanity.
DANIEL GIORDANO, ‘Mon Calamari III’, 2016-2019.
Glazed ceramic, aluminum, alligator, stainless steel bowls, deep-fried batter, tennis balls, gravel, iron ore, sparklers, tennis racket string, dental floss, thread, garment factory dust, epoxy, Tang drink mix, Tiger Balm, medicated itch powder, phosphorescent acrylic, bison.
38-1/2 x 15 x 14-1/2 in.
Collection: Theo Cerigo
(NFS)
note: Calimari translates both as to a squid, a yummy food delicacy*, and squid liquid . . which stains indelibly / and is therefore a verbal pathway to . . ink / and writing instrument.
“The word calamari was borrowed into English from 17th-century Italian, where it functioned as the plural of “calamaro” or “calamaio”. The Italian word, in turn, comes from the Medieval Latin noun calamarium, meaning “ink pot”, or “pen case”, and can be ultimately traced back to to Latin calamus, meaming // “reed pen”.
~Merriam-Webster
*battered & deep-fried (!!)
re: reed / ink pen . . those must be the thin, waver-y, once-were ‘sparklers’ . . that poke out from different points on the piece, but esp at the top.
re: layers, metaphors, and . . symbolism.
/ in a word: human history.
NICHOLAS STEINDORF . . gets it. it’s both serious & . . celebratory !!
btw:
NICHOLAS STEINDORF . . .
will be participating in a panel discussion on interactive art & artist collaborations / titled, ‘Dynamic Collaborations’
with HEIDI HOWARD and LIZ PHILLIPS, NICHOLAS STEINDORF repping his collab with Paris-based VIRTUAL DREAM CENTER (Jean-Baptiste LENGLET),
and . . GABY COLLINS-FERNANDEZ of PRECOG Magazine,
not this Sunday, but next.
mark your calendars . . .
SUNDAY, FEB 16, 2020 / 3 PM . . at THE QUEENS MUSEUM / QUEENS, NEW YORK
HEIDI HOWARD & LIZ PHILLIPS, who have an interactive / collab exhibit, ‘Relative Fields in a Garden’,
at THE QUEENS MUSEUM, will sponsor the panel discussion /
to mark the closing of their show . . Sun Feb 16, 2020 / 3 PM
see: ‘Relative Fields in a Garden’ / The Queens Museum
FAMILY !!!
in a mind-set / full-on / creative sense . . kind of way.
NICHOLAS STEINDORF meets up with DANIEL GIORDANO, at the opening.
behind them: ‘Colobonema’, 2020 by . . JUDY PFAFF
2 new wall works by .. JUDY PFAFF
from a different angle . .
JUDY PFAFF, ‘Colobonema’, 2020.
Melted plastics, acrylic, wire, bed springs, string lights, steel chair base.
28 x 26 x 32 in.
($15,000)
JUDY PFAFF, ‘Moon Jelly’, 2020.
Melted plastics, acrylic, expanded foam, roots, and motorized lighting.
36 x 0 x 30 in.
($15,000)
the show’s curator . . NICOLE CASTYALDO,
who is also Associate Director at the M. David & Co. gallery.
behind her a work by . . LEN BELLINGER.
LEN BELLINGER, ‘chisholm’, 2013-2015.
oil on canvas/wood / 56 x 40 x 5 in.
(7,800)
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH