Daniel G. Hill — Sculpture, Drawing, Installation, Painting

Daniel G. Hill: Recent Work

"How to describe Daniel G. Hill’s works, with their lucid but elusive play of perfect and imperfect, insubstantial geometric shapes? Drawings made tangible, sculptures, or projections that retain the memory of two-dimensional images? All of the above? None? However we answer these questions, there is no doubt that Hill’s compelling constructions, carefully crafted of hard and soft materials, are about the history of their making. Yet the revelation of that history makes the works unstable and unpredictable. Scale shifts, as we contemplate Hill’s constructions. We are first captured by large rhythms and then engaged by small details that announce how things have been assembled: knots, elegant screw-eyes and rings, clusters of interlocking hardware. We concentrate on the differences between matte cords and smooth PVC tubes or between sleek metal rings and the knots that engage them, mentally recapitulating both tactile experience and the action of the hand. Hill encourages us to draw connections between various shapes and implied forms, yet, at the same time, his works refuse to yield to logical analysis and, almost always, confound our expectations.

"That Hill is fascinated by geometry and wordless visual relationships is evident. He is capable of making arcane mathematical calculations, yet his delicate constructions are arrived at intuitively. They are not three-dimensional visualizations of equations, although Hill says that he often discovers fairly clear internal relationships in the course of working out a structure. He also remains alert to the unexpected, adjusting the supporting points of wall-mounted pieces to create the outline of one perfect square among many “drawn” elements or to allow some components to thrust into space and enter into a complex three-dimensional conversation with less aggressive portions of the piece. Some works read as abstract distillations of ungraspable experience—like diagrams of Cubist-inflected perceptions. What is constant is Hill’s choice of ordinary materials, often associated with the everyday and the vernacular, and his insistence on economical, uncomplicated construction methods that remain visible, if we look closely.

"Hill has said that he believes the artist’s role is to remind us of our capacity to wonder. His mysterious, deeply engaging works do just that."

Karen Wilkin
New York, February 2019


Bio:

Daniel G. Hill was born in 1956 in Providence, R.I. He is currently a Part-Time Lecturer at the Parsons School of Design where he served as an Assistant Professor of Fine Arts, 2001–2021. From 2013 to 2018, he served as President of American Abstract Artists and currently serves as its Secretary. Hill is a multi-disciplinary artist who has worked in sculpture, installation, painting, photography and digital media. He has exhibited in the U.S. for over 40 years and, more recently, in Europe, Asia and Central America and has curated exhibitions in New York (John Molloy Gallery), Brooklyn (Trestle Gallery), and Paris (ParisCONCRET and Abstract Project). His work is held in the collections of the Stiftung Konzeptuelle Kunst, Soest, Germany; Stichting EST art foundation, Leiden, the Netherlands; Metropolitan Museum of Art; MoMA Library Special Collection; New York Public Library; Phillips Collection; Cleveland Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, The Frances Mulhall Achilles Library; Yale University Art Gallery; US Embassy, Beijing Embassy Annex, US Department of State; Arkansas Art Center; and in several corporate and private collections. He is the recipient of a fellowship in painting from the National Endowment for the Arts and was awarded two year-long residencies at PS122 in New York City. He earned an A.B., Magna Cum Laude, from Brown University and an M.F.A. from Hunter College, C.U.N.Y.


Exhibitions: recent and upcoming

CENTURY. idee bauhaus, Modern Art Gallery in Veszprém, Hungary, opening January 20, 2023
Harmony and Contrast—Chromatic Painting at the Turn of the Century, Transmitter, Brooklyn, NY, 2022
Parallel Play, John Molloy Gallery, New York, NY, 2021
Uncharted: American Abstraction in the Information Age, Hofstra University Museum of Art, Hempstead, NY, 2020
Rope, Rod, Rag, Abstract Project, Paris, France, 2019


Links

Artist's Website
American Abstract Artists


Contact

email: danielghill at mac dot com


Images

Contact

email: danielghill at mac dot com