Gisela McDaniel explained

Gisela McDaniel
Birth Name:Gisela CHarfauros McDaniel
Birth Place:Bellevue, Nebraska, U.S.
Alma Mater:University of Michigan (BFA, 2019)
Known For:Paintings
Mother:Antoinette CHarfauros McDaniel

Gisela Charfauros McDaniel (born 1995) is an American visual artist of Indigenous Chamorro (or CHamoru) descent, working primarily with oil painting. McDaniel was born in Bellevue, Nebraska. She has lived in Detroit.[1] [2]

Background and career

Gisela McDaniel was born in 1995 at a military hospital in Bellevue, Nebraska, United States. She grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and attended an all-women’s high school on the Eastside of Cleveland. McDaniel's holds a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Michigan (2019). Her mother, Antoinette CHarfauros McDaniel is a Chamorro scholar native to Guam, a U.S. Territory.[3] [4] [5] McDaniel was named to Forbes 2024 "30 Under 30" list for Art & Style.[6]

After graduating from college in 2019, the artist moved to Detroit, where she established a studio to live closer to her relatives and to find emotional support after surviving sexual violence from a former partner and while studying abroad in Florence, Italy. The tragic event became central in her artistic practice as both a coping mechanism and a way to create a platform for other survivors of gender-based violence to feel honored. McDaniel's paintings are mainly portraits of female and non-binary subjects who identify as Black, Chamorro, Pacific Islander, Indigenous to Turtle Island, Asian, Latinx, and/or mixed-race and had experienced trauma.[7]

McDaniel's work combines motion-activated audio components featuring excerpts of interviews and conversations between the painter and her sitters about experienced traumas. She refers to them as her “subject-collaborators.” In the words of critics, she creates paintings that "talk back" to viewers.[8] [9] [10] [11]

In 2022, the artist presented the solo show “Manhaga Fu’una” at Pilar Corrias in London, in which she displayed paintings that incorporated found objects or donated materials ranging from clothing to recycled or broken jewelry.

She was named Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2024, alongside artists Kathia St. Hilaire and Akea Brionne.[12] [13]

Relation to Western Art History

Gisela McDaniel's artistic practice refers to the history of painting while highlighting marginalized voices within the art historical canon. In past interviews, McDaniel mentioned her intent to recover Gaugin's color palette as a way to reclaim her Chamorro/Pacific Islander ancestry. The subject in her painting Inagofli'e (2021), is posed very similarly to Gauguin's Spirit of the Dead Watching (1892). Gaugin's book Writings on the Savage, a source of misleading views and colonial violence, is sometimes used by the artist as a motivating source to continue to paint her subjects.[14] [15] In Got Your Back (2020), McDaniel refers to Gaugin as well as Delacroix's Women of Algiers (1834), and The Moroccans by Matisse.[16]

Exhibitions

Artworks in notable collections

References

  1. Web site: Gisela McDaniel • Pérez Art Museum Miami . 2023-08-04 . Pérez Art Museum Miami . en-US.
  2. Web site: Gisela McDaniel Makes Work That Helps Healing . 2023-08-07 . www.culturedmag.com . en.
  3. News: Wen . Anne . 2021-09-15 . 'It restores my soul': pandemic offers unexpected boon to Guam indigenous language learners . en-GB . The Guardian . 2023-08-07 . 0261-3077.
  4. Web site: Derksen . Peter . 2022 . Gisela McDaniel . Ocula.
  5. Web site: Tiningo' si Sirena: A Conversation with Gisela Charfauros McDaniel and Antoinette CHarfauros McDaniel . 2023-08-08 . Museum of Fine Arts Boston . en.
  6. Web site: Gisela McDaniel . 2024-01-30 . Forbes . en.
  7. Web site: 2020-07-10 . Gisela McDaniel Offers A Space for Healing Within Her Canvas . 2023-08-07 . Art of Choice . en-US.
  8. Web site: Souter . Anna . 2022-02-09 . A Painter Takes a Collaborative Approach to the Portrait . 2023-08-08 . Hyperallergic . en-US.
  9. Web site: Kalil-Barrino . Marisa . 2022-08-12 . Painter Gisela McDaniel Gives Voices to Marginalized Communities . 2023-08-08 . Hour Detroit Magazine . en-US.
  10. Web site: Gisela McDaniel . 2023-08-08 . Kresge Arts in Detroit . en-US.
  11. Web site: Hussein . Nimco Kulmiye . 2022-02-16 . Gisela McDaniel Paints Dazzling Portraits of Indigenous Resilience . 2023-08-08 . Artsy . en.
  12. Web site: Gisela McDaniel . 2024-07-30 . Forbes . en.
  13. Web site: Forbes 30 Under 30 2024: Art & Style . 2024-07-30 . Forbes . en.
  14. Web site: Baumgardner . Julie . 2022-01-26 . 'I Want to Replace Gauguin's Work': How Chamorro Painter Gisela McDaniel Gives Survivors of Trauma a Voice With Her Portraits . 2023-08-08 . Artnet News . en-US.
  15. News: 2019-11-21 . We're Still Talking About Gauguin (Published 2019) . The New York Times . en . 2023-08-08 . Cotter . Holland .
  16. Web site: You are being redirected... . 2023-08-08 . kadist.org.
  17. Web site: Gisela McDaniel: Sunset Over 8 Mile – ICA Boston . 2023-08-08 . en-US.
  18. Web site: Speaking Seeds • Pérez Art Museum Miami . 2023-08-07 . Pérez Art Museum Miami . en-US.
  19. Web site: Inagofli'e . 2023-08-08 . Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami . en-US.
  20. Web site: Baltimore Museum of Art's New Contemporary Wing Reinstallation Emphasizes Artists' Voices and Social Themes Relevant to Audiences Baltimore Museum of Art . 2023-08-09 . Baltimore Museum of Art’s New Contemporary Wing Reinstallation Emphasizes Artists’ Voices and Social Themes Relevant to Audiences Baltimore Museum of Art.

External links