Daniel Giordano

JDJ is thrilled to present Chamber of Ultimate Solution, Daniel Giordano’s debut solo exhibition with the gallery. This exhibition runs concurrently with Giordano’s solo exhibition Love From Vicki Island at Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA, on view through December 2023.

Excerpted from the exhibition’s text, Curator Susan Cross writes:

Daniel Giordano finds much of the material for his provocative and playful sculptures on the streets of Newburgh, New York, and on the banks of the nearby Hudson River or the train tracks that run alongside it.

An amalgamation of industrial and natural elements, his eclectic assemblages evoke creatures from some apocalyptic fantasy, but for the artist they truthfully reflect how he sees himself and his milieu: his family, the myths and mores of his Italian-American heritage, and the social, economic, and environmental realities of the gritty postindustrial city he calls home.

Giordano works in his family’s now-defunct factory, where he has taken over the third floor of the former Vicki Clothing Company, founded by his grandfather and named for his aunt. The studio — which the artist calls “Vicki Island” — overflows with memories as well as remnants of the previous enterprise: sewing machines, rolls of fabric, giant spools of thread, even piles of decades-old dust.

They bring to mind the assemblages of predecessors such as George Herms and Bruce Conner, with subtle but rich social commentary embedded in the materials and in their juxtapositions. Yet Giordano’s influences range far and wide, from the works of Francis Bacon and Paul McCarthy, to Japanese art of the Edo Period, Samurai culture, and an Etruscan chariot.

Daniel Giordano (b. 1988) lives and works in Newburgh, NY. Recent solo exhibitions include Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA; Ann Street Gallery, Newburgh, NY; the Rosenberg Gallery, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY; Wil Aballe Art Projects, BC, Canada; and Sardine, Brooklyn, NY. Recent group exhibitions include Helena Anrather, New York, NY; The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY; The Dorsky Museum, SUNY New Paltz, NY; Fortnight Institute, New York, NY; Clearsky Offsite Project, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY; Zürcher Gallery, New York, NY; Fridman Gallery, New York, NY; Barns Art Center, East Fishkill, NY; JDJ, New York, NY; and Anonymous Gallery, New York, NY, among others.