DANIEL GIORDANO
Even Cowboys Get Caught in the Rain
July 25 – August 24, 2019
Opening Reception: Thurs, July 25, 6-9 PM
WAAP
1129 East Hastings St.
@waapart
+1 778 229 3458
For press inquiries or sales, please contact Wil, wil@waapart.com.
Daniel Giordano – Even Cowboys Get Caught in the Rain PDF
WAAP is pleased to present Even Cowboys Get Caught in the Rain, a solo exhibition of works by New York-based artist, Daniel Giordano. While the artist’s sculpture Toutoune was presented at our Lower East Side group exhibition last year at VACATION, this show marks the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.
Giordano combines unexpected materials both purchased and found. Based between New York City and Newburgh, he often goes on long walks, picking up what was once forgotten, including detritus from the Hudson River (and so, the detritus of New Yorkers, and America). These materials, varying in type as widely as in origin, include but are not limited to such items as aluminium, plastic bags, plastic wrap, goat skin cock ring, aluminum tape, cork, correctional fluid, dust, Dior lipstick, bald eagle excrement, and epoxy paste, are then given new purpose in his studio, located in his family’s former coat factory. His sculptures tell multiple stories that intertwine and overlap, so that they’re almost one freaky, fragmented tale. His material sensibilities are informed by his upbringing in industrial Newburgh, NY (across the river from Beacon in the Hudson Valley), his environs—particularly his family’s now defunct coat factory and its long-discarded items, and his Italian-American upbringing.
While his material choices are deeply personal, they are also evocative of broader American culture. Giordano is constantly experimenting with new sculptural processes, as when he deep-fried a motorcycle for a recent show at Mother Gallery. With its use of deep-frying (which feels like a wholly American invention) and the motorcycle’s ability to evoke images of Route 66, Harley-Davidson, and films like Easy Rider, the sculpture feels thoroughly American and contemporary.
For the WAAP show, he will be showing his new series of abject masks, made from moisturizing face masks used by the artist and then put through his particular set of processes— whether electroplating, glazing, or deep-frying, and then applied with a varied set of evocative materials like urinal cakes, Murano glass, and bison hair, to name a few. A second series of Pleasure Pipesshows him at his restrained best, each work configured with a base of black locust wood and adorned with glass from Murano, Italy.
Giordano is the founder of Vicki Projects, located within his family’s factory and named after the company founded by his grandfather, Vicki Clothing Company, which in turn was named after his aunt. Since 2016, the project space has hosted a number of exhibitions, including a recent group show with three Montreal-based artists, co-curated by Giordano last spring.
For the exhibition, the artist’s brother, Anthony Giordano, has written a short story titled PART II, which continues a narrative began for an exhibition at Sardine in Brooklyn, NY early this year. Both stories can be found here and PART II will be published in our quarterfold accompaniment for the exhibition.
