Beautiful Things
Daniel Hesidence (b. 1975, American) approaches his practice as a philosophical-poetical totality. His works evince a means of sub-language communication, a primal and emotive symbolic order that both precedes and exceeds linguistic structure. Though conceived in symphonic suites, each painting dilates back and forth between dynamic eruption and smoldering aftermath, between the dispersion of cataclysmic debris and the intelligent pattern recognition required to make sense of the wreckage.
Never in thrall to the easy virtues of the managerial sublime, a single Hesidence painting — at its molten core — stages the anticipatory drama of a threshold event, but without the tidy coercive atmospherics that attend such events. Consummation, if it comes at all, is nearly always provisional; and though elusive, its satisfactions can be located in Hesidence’s deep compressions of various antithetical frequencies: attraction and repulsion, sensual and cerebral, the penetratingly intimate and the frustratingly distant.
Not simply the valorization of the poet’s deep subjective interiority (and its resulting narcissistic cul de sacs), Daniel Hesidence’s work bears witness to the mechanics of incremental distillation over an extended period of time. By pulling back our persistent veil of ingratiating civility, he reveals the hive mind’s reluctance to confront the unruly seepage that can never be neutralized by efficiency protocols, nor compartmentalized by existing strategies of rhetorical persuasion. At heart, then, they are bruised valentines for a bruised collective psyche which has willingly — though unknowingly — lost the crypto-mystic thread.
Biography
Born in Akron, Ohio, 1975 Lives in Long Island City, New York Master of Fine Arts, Hunter College, New York, 2001 Bachelors of Fine Arts, University of Tampa, FL, 1998
Solo Exhibitions
2015 Summers Gun, CANADA, New York, NY
2014 Summers Gun, Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2010 Autumn Buffalo, DʼAmelio Terras Gallery, New York, NY
2009 Rose Laughter Winter Holiday, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY;
curated by David Altmejd
2008 1 7 7 9 / Pedestrians, Feature Inc., New York, NY
1 7 7 9 / Pedestrians, Greener Pastures Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada
2007 1 7 7 7, Kevin Bruk Gallery, Miami, FL (catalog)
2006 1 7 3 6, Shaheen Modern and Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH
2005 Waltz Paintings, Kantor Feuer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2004 Feature Inc., New York, NY
M du B, F, H & g, Montreal, Canada
2002 Feature Inc., New York, NY
M du B, F, H & g, Montreal, Canada
Group Exhibitions
2013 The Encyclopedic Palace, 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, curated by Massimiliano Gioni
2012 The Old, the New, the Different, Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland
Pothole, Salon 94, New York, NY
2011 bodybraingame, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL, curated by Hudson
Facing the Abyss, Witzenhausen Gallery, New York, NY
2010 La Tableau, Cheim and Read, New York, NY; curated by Joe Fyfe Black is the color, NP Contemporary Arts
Center, New York
2009 Why Painting Now, BFAS/Blondeau Fine Art Services, Geneva,
Switzerland
Cave Painting: Installment #1, Greshamʼs Ghost,
New York, NY; organized by Bob Nickas
A Pink Panther, Kumukumu Gallery, New York, NY; curated by
Amy Smith- Stewart with Hannah Dumes and Nicole OʼRourke
Splinter of the Mindʼs Eye, Philip Slein Gallery, St. Louis, MO
Cave Painting, PSM Gallery, Berlin, Germany; curated by Bob Nickas
The Anniversary Show, Tracy Williams Limited, New York, NY
Populate This Form, Feature Inc., New York, NY
2008 Political Correct, BFAS/Blondeau Fine Art Services, Geneva,
Switzerland, curated by Hudson
Bob Nickas: Recent Acquisitions, Gifts, and Works from Various
Exhibitions 1985-2007, White Columns, New York, NY
Ambivalent Figuration; People, Samson Projects, Boston, MA
2007 Painting as Fact – Fact as Fiction, de Pury & Luxembourg, Zurich,
Switzerland; curated by Robert Nickas
Miami Basel, Miami (Kevin Bruk Gallery)
Handcrafter Optimism, Bodybuilders & Sportsman, Chicago, IL
Warhol &..., Kantor/Feuer, Los Angeles, CA
Heralds of Creative Anachronism, DʼAmelio Terras, New York, NY
Late Liberties, John Connelly Presents, New York, NY
2006 The Way of All Flesh, Bravin Lee Productions, New York, NY
Lippo Parades: When Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures,
Scarfone/Hartley Gallery, University of Tampa, Tampa, FL
USA Today: New American Art from the Saatchi Gallery, Royal
Academy of Arts, London, UK (catalog)
The Aleph, Sandroni Rey, Los Angeles, CA
Exquisite Corpse – Cadavre Exquis: A Game Played Between Mitchell
Algus and Bob Nickas, Mitchelle Algus Gallery, New York, NY
Dark, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands;
curated by Jan Grosfeld and Rein Wolfs (catalog)
Clarissa Dalrympleʼs Exhibition of Young Artists to Benefit the
Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Bortolami Dayan, New York,
NY; curated by Clarissa Dalrymple
2005 University of Tampa Alumni & Adjunct Faculty Exhibition
Scarfone/Hartley Gallery, University of Tampa, Tampa, FL
Greater New York 2005, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY (catalog)
With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast, Artspace, New Haven,
CT (brochure)
Gabríela Fridriksdóttir, Daniel Hesidence, Will Ryman, Tracy Williams, Ltd.
New York ʻThe sun rises in the evening.ʼ, Feature Inc., New York, NY
Richard Aldrich, Olivia Booth, Brian Fahlstrom, Carrie
Gundersdorf, Daniel Hesidence, Candace Nycz, Sterling Ruby,
Marc Foxx, Los Angeles, CA
The Hills Have Eyes, Ingalls and Associates, Miami, FL; curated by
Gean Moreno
Traces Everywhere, Tracy Williams, Ltd., New York, NY
2003 Flesh and Blood: The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste, Michael
Steinberg Fine Art, New York, NY; curated by Tracy Williams
Fright Wig, Feature Inc., New York, NY
2002 Landscape, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY
The Funeral Home, Marc Foxx, Los Angeles, CAS; curated by
Dennis Cooper
2001 Another, once again, many times more, Feature Inc., New York, NY
Bibliography
2011 Frederick, Jeff. “Exhibition Reviews: Daniel Hesidence.” Art in America no. 2., February 2011: 99.
2010 Smith, Roberta. “Art in Review: Daniel Hesidence ʻAutumn Buffaloʼ.” The New York Times, 17 December 2010: C34.
Asfour, Nana. Review, “Daniel Hesidence: ʻAutumn Buffalo,ʼ” Time Out New York, November 19–25.
Heinrich, Will. “The Force of Color: New Shows By Daniel Hesidence, Ana Mendieta and Bernd and Hilla Becher,” New York Observer. November 15, pg 52- 53.
2009 Smith, Roberta. “Le Tableau: French Abstraction and Its Affinities,” The New York Times. July 2. 2009
Nickas, Bob. Painting Abstraction: New Elements in Abstract Painting, Phaidon Press, New York
Marshall, Piper. “Cave Painting: A Conversation with Bob Nickas,” Art in America, 22 June 2009.
2008 Goings On About Town, New Yorker, 8 December 2008, pg. 20. Maine, Stephen. Review, Artcritical.com, December 2008. Wolin, Joseph R. Review, Time Out New York, 27 November – 3 December
Abstract America: New Painting, exhibition catalog with an introduction by Max Henry, Jonathan Cape. Random House, London, in association with the Saatchi Gallery.
2007 Lowenstein, Kate. Review of “Late Liberties,” Time Out New York, 23-29 August.
2006 Bly, Liz. Review, artUS, October/November, pg 61. Litt, Steven. Review, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 9 June.
2006 Tranberg, Dan. Preview, Angle, no. 26 (May/June), pg 16. Valerio, Mariel. Lippo Parades, The Minaret, 22 September. Voeller, Megan. “Homecoming,” Tampa Weekly Planet, 6-12 September, pg 21. “UT Gallery Highlights Emerging Tampa Artists, Tampa Tribune, 7 September.
2005 Greater New York 2005, exhibition catalog, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York, pg 188-189.
Birke, Judy. “Exhibit About Fear is Creepy, Daring, and Most Compelling,” New Haven Register. 27 November, D:1,3.
Carel, Sari. Review of group exhibition at Tracy Williams, Ltd., artforum.com, Criticsʼ Picks. 24 July.
Church, Amanda. Review of “Traces Everywhere,” Art on Paper, March/April, pg 74.
Eleey, Peter. “Greater New York,” Frieze. May, pg 114-115 (reproduction).
Genocchio, Benjamin. “Everything To Fear, Especially Fear Itself,” New York Times. 2
Manning, Sean. Review of “Traces Everywhere,” New York Press. 2-8 February, pg. 52.
Ribas, Joao. Review of “Traces Everywhere,” Art Review. April.
Smith, Roberta. Review of group exhibition at Tracy Williams, Ltd., New York Times, 5 August E28.
“Artists in New York,” Contemporary Art 2005, pg 38-43 (reproductions). “New York Special,” Harpers Bazaar Japan. October, pg. 136 (reproduction). Goings On About Town, New York. 8-15 August, pg 22.
2004 Cotter, Holland. Review, New York Times. 24 September, E33. Manning, Sean. Review, New York Press, 6-12 October, pg 56 (reproduction.)
2002 Mahoney, Robert. Review, Time Out New York. 11-18 April, pg. 71. 2001
Cotter, Holland. “Another, Once Again, Many Times More,” New York Times, Listings. 11 May, E38.
Preview Press
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