Daniel Gibson: Chasing the Black Bird
Daniel Gibson has long explored the natural world in his paintings as a means to address notions of hardship, resilience, and freedom. In opposition to the harsh desert landscape of his youth, the artist renders his paintings as lush botanical spaces full of thriving flora and fauna, and loaded with a symbology that connects to his Mexican-American heritage. At an early age, Gibson witnessed the bleak realities of migration to the United States from the California border with Mexico. To cope with what he knew would be a near impossible journey for so many, he turned to his imagination, conjuring a bountiful landscape that could support these weary migrants, envisioning each individual as a flower populating this new land. These childhood memories, dreams, and fantasies have come to be the root of his artistic practice.
Chasing the Black Bird is a testament to Gibson's continued evolution as an artist, highlighting his commitment to pushing the visual boundaries of his practice, while remaining deeply connected to the genre of landscape painting as a conceptual framework to discuss memory, migration, and the untold stories of those that venture into the United States in search of a better future.
Daniel Gibson (b. 1977 Yuma, AZ; Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) has had solo and two-person exhibitions at Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, CA; Almine Rech, New York and Paris; Brant Timonier, Palm Beach, FL; New Image Art, Los Angeles, CA; Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA; LAX Art, Los Angeles, CA; and Mexicali Rose, Baja, Mexico. Recent group exhibitions include the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA; MUSEA K11, Hong Kong; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, CA; Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, CA; The Pit, Los Angeles, CA; Bozo Mag, Los Angeles, CA; and BBQLA, Los Angeles, CA. His works have been written about by the LA Times, WideWalls, Juxtapoz, and Brooklyn Rail and are in the permanent collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, TX, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL, and the public collection of the Deji Art Museum, Nanjing, China.