Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Gerwin.
Hi Daniel, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I arrived in Los Angeles in 2015, after teaching painting and drawing for a year up at UC Davis. That was the last of my eight years of teaching at colleges, including University of the Arts, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Iowa. LA has been a great home for me as both an artist and a critic: the scene is really open here, relaxed and friendly, and it’s been fun getting to know the artists, writers, and gallerists that make this community so great. My solo show in 2019 got reviewed in the LA Times by David Pagel, an exciting moment that still feels good. I’ve curated three shows in LA, the last one was in 2021 at The Landing Gallery, a group show focusing specifically on artworks made in response to artists’ experience of being a parent. It was a great project because we showed some canonical artists like Catherine Opie, Eleanor Antin, Alison Saar, and Paul McCarthy, while also including a new generation, including Loie Hollowell, Matt Bollinger, Patty Chang, and Harry Dodge.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
What road is ever smooth? Since 2012 when our first kid was born, I’ve been the primary caretaker for our children, which requires me to organize my studio and writing time around the needs of the family. The obligations of parenting cause me to miss a lot of the openings and other events I’d love to attend, and I see way fewer shows than I’d like. But I’m OK with it; many of my art heroes deal with the same challenges: Ragen Moss is a practicing attorney and a mom, and her sculptures were in the Whitney Biennial! Loie Hollowell is painter whose work is all about her bodily experiences of sex, pregnancy, and motherhood, and her career is huge. We all play the cards we’re dealt, and I do my best with the ones in my hand.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My new work involves paintings of eyes within fields of flesh-colored paint, addressing the parental gaze as both protective and witnessing. It is not common for men to make art about parenting, so inevitably my work also speaks to the contemporary discourse around masculinity, its history, and potential evolution. These paintings feel disembodied and kind of unsettling, but to be honest, I am unsettled these days. It’s not just the two years of Covid and all that this has meant for raising young kids; it’s also that as I walk my kids to school, or put them to bed at night, I have to answer questions about whether the conflict in Ukraine is going to lead to WWIII, and about the school shooting in Uvalde. I’m interested in the ways that the new paintings evoke some of these disturbing experiences, while also mirroring the viewer’s eye and transforming the painting itself into some kind of uncanny presence.
My critical writing appears primarily in Artforum and Hyperallergic. I have written four pieces for Hyperallergic on the relationship of art and parenting, and those essays are especially important to me. I’m sure I will write on this topic again in the future.What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
I’m told that the artist Stephen Prina, who taught at Art Center here in LA, used to say during grad school critiques, “Never underestimate the value of a distraction.” I think that’s worth thinking about, and it certainly resonates with my own experience.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.danielgerwin.com
- Instagram: @danieljgerwin
