Daniel Arango (b.1982 Colombia)
Daniel is an artist, architect, designer, and explorer. After he completed his MFA from RISD, Daniel embarked on a creative and spiritual journey. For the past eleven years Daniel has been traveling around the world with his nomadic studio, making art shaped by the places he’s explored and the people he’s met along the way. His artwork is filled with stories of his past, present, and future.
Since he was a child Daniel has never felt completely at home anywhere, always feeling the urge to move on. He attributes this urge to his earliest experience: of migrating from Colombia to Miami at age three, where he was raised. His memories of the vibrant colors of the Carnival de Barranquilla and the tropical birds from his brief childhood on the Caribbean left an indelible mark. As a teenager, living near the water in Miami, similar colors, rhythms and cultures were infused with sexual energy. Later on when Daniel moved to New York City for university that energy was magnified by the layers, structures and grids of city life.
Daniel has traveled through more than sixty countries. He started with a three-year-long performance called the “Holy K movement.” In which Daniel made videos of his rituals with his Holy K cereal box. The name is a humorous critique of religion and Kellogg’s Special K cereal. Both are consumer products that advertise themselves as natural and healthy, but they’re both full of unhealthy ingredients. Daniel hitchhiked around New Zealand for six months while he camped out and painted the “Louvre Series.” He lived off-grid in the Maui jungle for six months creating the “Hawaiian Series.” He worked on the “Latin America Series” for a year as he made his way down from Mexico to Colombia.
With impeccable craftsmanship and an eye for the invisible, Daniel creates his own world in a unique format of painting, tufted painting, sculpture, architecture and film. His art is intricately layered with images of buildings, objects, bodies, digestion, plants, animals, gods, sexuality, and cereal.
Some of his canvases combine hand painting with yarn tufting and other canvases with digital printing, narrating his encounters with nature, people, and environments, and blending history with contemporary culture. Daniel builds temples, alters and confessionals among other sculptures.
Daniel is currently creating a series of sculptures inspired by Thai spirit houses and Classical Greek temples. Combing both architecture and rituals, he’s creating his own shrine like temples fitted with figurines, animal miniatures, and offerings of incense, food, and flowers. The sculptures are 3D printed in wood, marble and metal.
Daniel received an MFA degree in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design (2010), a BFA in Interior Design from the School of Visual Arts (2005) in New York City, and also studied a semester of interior architecture at Instituto Europeo di Design in Madrid (2004). Daniel’s art practice is a combination of art, architecture and interior design. He’s worked in NYC and internationally for many years.
Education
2008 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, USA
Master of Fine Arts, Honors, Painting
2005 School of Visual Arts, New York, USA
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Interior Design
2004 Istituto Europeo di Design, Madrid, Spain
Interior Architecture studies
Exhibitions
2018
Installation at Faena for Art Basel Week, Miami Beach, USA, December
What goes around comes to art, Herrick Gallery, London, UK, November
2016
Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair, Misc. Press, MOCA, Los Angeles, USA, February
2015
Exchange, Your Art, Your Space, Visual Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow, Ireland, May
2014
Daniel Arango vs. Kevin Arnold: Faith as Model, Able Fine Art, New York, USA, December
The Blonde Salad Party, Le Bain, The Standard, New York, USA, September
The 21st Annual Summer Benefit, The Watermill Center, Watermill, NY, USA, July
2013
Gallery Nights Season Finale 2013, SLS Hotel, Miami Beach, USA, November
“It’s All About The Kids” Benefiting St. Jude Children’s, JW Marriott, Miami, USA, October
Noches De Galerias, Katsuya By Stark at SLS Hotel, Miami Beach, USA, September
Storytellers and Mystics, Art Connects New York, Brooklyn, USA, May
2012
Verge Art Fair, Ess Callahan Projects Gallery, New York, USA, May
COME AND GET IT!, Hendershot Gallery, New York, USA, March
2011
Petite-Mort- Recollections, forever & today, inc., New York, USA, September
Voyage Issue XXXX Magazine, Big Screen Plaza, New York, USA, September
Cocktails At Sunset, Hosted By Steven Klein, Bridgehampton, USA, July
ACRIA’s Unframed, 123 Third Avenue Penthouse, New York, USA, May
The ART OF LOVE, Milk Gallery, New York, USA, March
2010
New Contemporaries, RISD Museum Gelman Gallery, Providence, USA, July
Whatever Forever, Black Sheep Projects, Providence, USA, May
Graduate Thesis Show, RI Convention Center, Providence, USA, May
2009
T-Shirt Collection for Art Basel, The Webster, Miami, USA, December
crit 4, Spencertown Academy Arts Center, Spencertown, USA, August
2008
Graduate Painting, Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, USA, September
2007
GLAAD OutAuction, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York, USA, October
American Slide-All, New York Studio Gallery, New York, USA, January
2006
Eric are you there? Solo Exhibition, Ninth Studio, New York, USA, October
Art.B.Q, East River Bar, Brooklyn, USA, June
2005
Senior Thesis Show, National Arts Club, New York, USA, April
2003
SVA Exhibition, School of Visual Arts Gallery, New York, USA February
2002
SVA Exhibition, School of Visual Arts Gallery, New York, USA, January
Honors, Awards and Grants
2011 The Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL
2010 Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant Nominee
2008 RISD Graduate Trustee Scholarship
2005 Best Thesis Winner
2003 First Place Winner for Herman Miller Competition
2001 Four Years Silas H. Rhodes Merit Chairman’s Scholarship