Overview
Employing references to the natural world while speaking to hardships, resilience, and freedom, Daniel Gibson's paintings explore a lexicon of symbols that relate to his familial past and his identity as a Mexican-American. Growing up along the California border with Mexico, he witnessed the harsh realities of migration to America at an early age. In an effort to face the bleak nature of these grueling journeys, he turned to his imagination, reshaping reality with fantasy by introducing dreamlike guardians into the desert landscape. Conjuring people from his past as a means to examine the present, Gibson uses memories to create dream-like narratives that explore themes of identity and migration. 
 

Using the desert landscapes and seasides of Southern and Baja California as their fertile ground, his surrealistic scenes are populated with lush flora that take on an anthropomorphic quality. Butterflies, flowers, ocotillos, and desert mountains become proxies for the people navigating the desert, visualizing the narratives of migration without drawing on essentialist tropes. For the artist, his works are as much autobiographical as they are collective stories that document moments of struggle and celebration that would otherwise be lost to time. 

 


 

Daniel Gibson (b. 1977 Yuma, AZ; Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) has had solo and two-person exhibitions at Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, CA; Almine Rech, New York and Paris; Brant Timonier, Palm Beach, FL; New Image Art, Los Angeles, CA; Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA; LAX Art, Los Angeles, CA; and Mexicali Rose, Baja, Mexico. Recent group exhibitions include the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA; Casa Santa Ana, Panama City; MUSEA K11, Hong Kong; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, CA; Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, CA; The Pit, Los Angeles, CA; Bozo Mag, Los Angeles, CA; and BBQLA, Los Angeles, CA. His works have been written about by the LA TimesWideWalls, Juxtapoz, and Brooklyn Rail and are in the permanent collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, TX, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL, and the public collection of the Deji Art Museum, Nanjing, China. 

 

Gibson’s work is currently on view in his solo exhibition Devil’s Wind at Marquez Art Projects in Miami, Florida. 

Works
  • Daniel Gibson, Days are changing with the weather, 2024
    Daniel Gibson
    Days are changing with the weather, 2024
    Oil on linen
    63 x 59 in
    160 x 149.9 cm
  • Daniel Gibson, In the Sky By My Side, 2024
    Daniel Gibson
    In the Sky By My Side, 2024
    Oil on linen
    75 x 67 in
    190.5 x 170.2 cm
  • Daniel Gibson, Sleeping, 1977, 2024
    Daniel Gibson
    Sleeping, 1977, 2024
    Oil on linen
    90 x 78 ½ in
    228.6 x 199.4 cm
  • Daniel Gibson, Flower Head in March, 2023
    Daniel Gibson
    Flower Head in March, 2023
    Oil on linen
    75 x 67 in
    190.5 x 170.2 cm
  • Daniel Gibson, FlowerHead, 2022
    Daniel Gibson
    FlowerHead, 2022
    Oil on linen
    90 1/2 x 158 in
    229.9 x 401.3 cm
  • Daniel Gibson, Full Pink Moon, 2022
    Daniel Gibson
    Full Pink Moon, 2022
    Oil on linen
    78 3/4 x 90 1/2 in
    200 x 229.9 cm
  • Daniel Gibson, Chasing the Black Bird, 2024
    Daniel Gibson
    Chasing the Black Bird, 2024
    Oil on linen
    63 x 59 in
    160 x 149.9 cm
    64 ¼ x 60 x ¼ in (framed)
    163.2 x 152.4 x 0.6 cm (framed)
  • Daniel Gibson, Praying on a Rock, 2024
    Daniel Gibson
    Praying on a Rock, 2024
    Oil on linen
    63 x 59 in
    160 x 149.9 cm
    64 ½ x 30 ½ in (framed)
    163.5 x 77.2 cm (framed)
  • Daniel Gibson, True Constellations, 2024
    Daniel Gibson
    True Constellations, 2024
    Oil on linen
    36 x 47 in
    91.4 x 119.4 cm
    37 ½ x 48 ¼ in (framed)
    95.3 x 122.6 cm (framed)
  • Daniel Gibson, Pathfinder, 2023
    Daniel Gibson
    Pathfinder, 2023
    Charcoal and Sumi ink on paper
    19 x 24 in (Framed: 21 x 26 in)
    48.3 x 61 cm
  • Daniel Gibson, Flower Head, 2023
    Daniel Gibson
    Flower Head, 2023
    Charcoal and Sumi ink on paper
    24 x 19 in (Framed: 26 x 21 in)
    61 x 48.3 cm
  • Daniel Gibson, Butterfly #14 (In the Valley of the Moon), 2021
    Daniel Gibson
    Butterfly #14 (In the Valley of the Moon), 2021
    Oil on linen
    78 x 90 in
  • Daniel Gibson, Two Lovers in the Field, 2022
    Daniel Gibson
    Two Lovers in the Field, 2022
    Oil on linen
    90 3/4 x 78 1/2 in
    230.5 x 199.4 cm
  • Daniel Gibson, On the Yaqui Shoreline , 2021
    Daniel Gibson
    On the Yaqui Shoreline , 2021
    Oil on linen
    64 x 73 in
  • Daniel Gibson, Plaster City East, 2021
    Daniel Gibson
    Plaster City East, 2021
    Oil on linen
    73 x 64 in
    185.4 x 162.6 cm
  • Daniel Gibson, Two Lovers, 2021
    Daniel Gibson
    Two Lovers, 2021
    Oil on linen
    72 x 72 in
  • Daniel Gibson, Red Flower Watch, 2020
    Daniel Gibson
    Red Flower Watch, 2020
    Oil on canvas
    72 x 64 inches
  • Daniel Gibson, Stay Together, 2020
    Daniel Gibson
    Stay Together, 2020
    Oil on linen
    72 x 60 inches
Installation shots
Exhibitions
Art Fairs
Video
News
Press