Amarelli licorice, 1970s Husqvarna motocross bikes, cattails, and railroad spikes: Daniel Giordano finds material for his provocative and playful sculptures on the streets of Newburgh, New York, and along the banks of the nearby Hudson River. His eclectic assemblages reflect the mores of his Italian-American heritage and the postindustrial realities of his hometown, where the artist works in his family’s now-defunct factory. At the steel tables once occupied by seamstresses, Giordano crafts his serial works by hand, both mimicking and subverting processes of mass production. Weaving together industrial artifacts, foodstuffs from prosciutto to Italian nougat, and organic matter including ticks and bald eagle excrement, his sculptures move between humor, fantasy, the erotic, and the abject. Ultimately, his works function as complex portraits of the artist and his family, as well as a city – and a nation – struggling to reconcile the past with the present.

About the Artist
Daniel Giordano (b. 1988, Poughkeepsie, NY) earned his MFA from the University of Delaware in 2016. He has had solo exhibitions at the Rosenberg Gallery, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York; Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, Canada; and SARDINE Brooklyn. The artist’s work has been featured in group exhibitions in New York: at Fortnight Institute,  Zürcher Gallery, Fridman Gallery, JDJ, anonymous, Morgan Lehman, and at Mother, Beacon, New York. He is a recipient of the AIM fellowship at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. Giordano’s work has been featured in Art Spiel, Canadian Art, Cultured Magazine, and Sculpture Magazine which spotlighted his work in a 12-page feature article in 2020.

IMAGES & VIDEO

Learn more about Daniel Giordano: Love from Vicki Island on MASS MoCA’s Youtube Channel.

EXHIBITION TEXTS

English Wall Text
Texto Descriptivo Español

Download a PDF of the exhibition guide here. 

Support for Love from Vicki Island is provided by The McCurdy Family, in honor of William Griffiths, and the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Delaware.

Daniel Giordano
My Scorpio I, 2016–19
1970s Husqvarna motocross bikes, aluminum, Canadian maple syrup, cattails, ceramic, deep-fried batter, epoxy, phosphorescent acrylic paint, plastic wrap, railroad spikes, steel, stockfish, urinal cake
88 x 72 x 24 inches
Photo: Ernesto Eisner