Exhibition Review: Daniel Gordon on the Greenway
Daniel Gordon, Still Life on the Greenway 2021.
Written by Trevor Bishai
Rendered in bright colors echoing Matisse, Daniel Gordon’s abstract images defy first impressions. The closer one gets to one of Gordon’s prints, the more evident the creases, folds, and traces of the inkjet printing which colors much of the objects in the frame become. His practice of constructing artificial scenes with paper objects subverts traditional ideas of still life photography, incorporating elements of both sculpture and collage into his process. “I am not trying to recreate the real,” says the artist, “I’m interested in formal challenges.” Working with ideas of scale and the public display of art, Gordon’s latest exhibition at The Greenway in Boston examines notions of construction in both cityscapes and fine art.
Daniel Gordon, Still Life 2021.
Daniel Gordon, Blue Poppies, 2021.
The use of constructed objects in Gordon’s work introduces an element of artificiality to his compositions. From afar, one might even believe that Gordon has arranged a number of actual fruits, plates, vases, and other mainstays of the twin traditions of still life painting and photography. All still lifes presuppose an element of construction, just as the traditional bowls of fruit and bouquets of flowers are carefully arranged by the photographer before taking the shot. Gordon takes the idea of a constructed frame a step further by constructing the objects themselves. Paper serves as a primary material; a close examination of his “Still Lifes” shows the folds and creases of the material that forms each object. Much like the work of Thomas Demand, the imperfections of each paper object—which in Gordon’s work are quite evident to the viewer—break down ideas about what is “real.”
Daniel Gordon, Summer Still Life with Lobsters and Fern, 2021
Gordon plays with scale, using it to manipulate the viewer’s perception of each piece—his latest installation includes an image that is too large to fit on any gallery wall and is instead printed on the side of a building. At The Greenway in Boston, Gordon’s “Summer Still Life with Lobsters and Fern” is one of the largest works of public art in the city. Once a pigment print a few feet in width, the piece has been painted onto a wall measuring seventy by seventy-six feet. At The Greenway, a public park extending over a mile through city streets and buildings, Gordon’s still life looms over one of the green spaces and can be studied in precise detail from nearly any distance. The major re-scaling of this recent piece reinforces the fundamental idea of construction—now very clear to the viewer and available for all to see.
Daniel Gordon, Still Life, 2021.
Construction exists in many forms, and of course, not only in art. The built environment is a product of human construction, witnessed perhaps nowhere more than in cities. In downtown Boston, construction takes place near constantly on almost every city block. It is a feature of daily life, and it is therefore no mystery why Gordon’s work is an ideal choice for public art on The Greenway. In addition to the grand mural, several more of Gordon’s still lifes are on display (at their normal scale) throughout the park. Studying his carefully crafted images under the surrounding skyscrapers, one is reminded of how construction exists in many forms, whether used to create massive architecture or a colorful still life.
