On View June 4 - July 18, 2010

Opening Reception Friday June 4, 7-10 p.m. with an artist’s talk at 7:15 and a free concert by Roman Candle and Dangerbird beginning at 8:00.

GALLERY DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

With Daniel Graham’s art, there’s always a story.  For example, there are Daniel’s personal stories about why he chose to make a machine that rubs eggshells together (Mouthpiece) or why he built a chair that sounds like a spray paint can when moved.  But more importantly, there are the stories that he’s teasing out through the pairing of images and titles.  Nothing is spelled out for the viewer, but there are hints of history and mystery and meaning.

Daniel Graham makes a lot of art.  In 2009 alone he participated in 11 exhibits around the country on top of his teaching responsibilities.  He teaches sculpture and printmaking at Georgetown College.   He wakes up at 5:00 a.m. each morning and goes straight to his personal studio on campus.  When his students start showing up around 9:00, he’s already produced art.

And the art Daniel Graham makes comes in many forms.  He uses printmaking techniques, sculpture of many kinds, traditional woodworking methods, performance art, and electronics.

One recognizable feature of Daniel Graham’s art in all its forms is an amazing level of craft and skill.  Equally with all types of materials, he builds images and forms meticulously.

However, when looking at Daniel Graham’s art, it’s pretty apparent that his work is not merely process driven, but is instead “conceptually driven to their means of production,” as his artist statement says.

In the woodcuts, symbols that you couldn’t prepare for are paired.  As viewers, we’re left to make sense of the side by side images.  In “The stars were meant to shine for you” we see a sinking ship and we see a circus scene.  It takes a mental leap to fit the two images into one meaning, but at the same time, upon contemplation, there’s an immediate neurological response that starts to occur, stirring around the textures and colors and the symbols with the works title.  In the end, it’s unclear if there’s a “message” trying to be communicated, but there’s certainly poetry happening.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

My work is an investigation of comparative relationships through personal narratives.  Existing in multiple mediums my pieces are conceptually driven to their means of production.  Whether in the form of sculptural autonomous machines or variations in printmaking, my work is based in storytelling.  I was raised in an environment where it was believed anything could be fixed or figured out.  A large amount of my work starts as a means of breaking down, fixing, or figuring out a personal matter.  Not a means of catharsis, but a means of interpersonal communication.  I often rely on a process of forcing images against each other to dilate a previously unscripted narrative.  I have never been short on words, but when it comes to explaining emotion I often am short on the right words.  There is a practice in dream therapy in dealing with partial memory where the client will start telling their dream until it gets unclear what happens next.  At this point the therapist will make up the rest.  The client will contest, saying “No it was not like that.  It was like this,” going on to finish a dream they had up until then forgotten.  The memory comes forward to defend itself.  I am both the client and the administrator.  I force comparisons in hope of a defensive dialogue coming forward to defend the visual narrative as a valid interpretation of each personal investigation.

ARTIST’S BIO

Raised in a military family, I moved around every two years of my life.  I come from a family of storytellers and sharers.  My mother is the one who introduced me to making things, my father taught me how to fix just about anything.  I am a professor at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky.  I teach courses in Sculpture, Printmaking, 3D design, Ceramics, and Package Design.  I received my Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Georgia and my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The University of Florida.  I have the pleasure of working with the best faculty and staff ever found in the country and I love working with the students of Georgetown College.  I love working on my vintage Vespa and I also love my wife’s Bill Cosby impression.

J. Daniel Graham currently lives in Georgetown Kentucky with his wife Holly and their daughter Olive and their dog Clover.

His website is jdgraham.net.

This page was posted Wednesday, May 5, 2010.