The Art of Daniel Calder

The Editors

 

Daniel Calder earned his MFA in 1990 from Virginia Commonwealth University.  He is a recipient of a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship.  Calder has also been commissioned for original works  by the City of Richmond and the Washington Project for the Arts.  His work appears in numerous private and corporate collections and has been featured in various publications, including ​New American Paintings, Artpapers, Washingtonian, Style Weekly,  Richmond Magazine, and the Richmond Times Dispatch.

 

According to Calder, “In this series of paintings, I use the icon of the blackboard to reexamine some of what we know about a group of our most familiar historical figures, myths, and cultural phenomena. Our understanding of this should not stop at what we were told in elementary school.

 

The impetus for this series is my confusion when confronted with the discord between what we are taught and what seems to be the case. Or perhaps what we are not taught—our selective collective memory. It seems to parallel our personal efforts to control the story of our own lives and personas. I use incongruity and sometimes humor to encourage the viewer to reconsider . . . everything.

 

Though these works are not actual blackboards, chalk and erasers are often provided, allowing viewers to add or delete information, rewriting history or providing their own. In the end, even in the gallery setting, the artist’s voice will not necessarily have the last say.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Titles:

 

-Half MT, wood, paint, 2018

 

-The White Brick Road, wood, paint, 2018

 

-Stain the Course, wood, paint, 2018

 

-Coming Clean, wood, paint, 2018

 

-George Never Smiles, installation view, 2015

 

-Vanishing Act, wood, paint, 2016

 

-Messiahpithecus, wood, paint, 2014

 

 

For Highbrow Magazine

 

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