Gisela McDaniel: All These Parts Make Up Me: Solo Exhibition

Gisela Charfauros McDaniel (b. 1995) is a diasporic CHamoru artist with maternal roots in Guam, currently living and working in New York City. Drawing significant inspiration from her own identity, she has built a body of work that attempts to create whole portraits of historically marginalized individuals, including indigenous communities, people of color, mixed-race individuals, women, non-binary, and queer people. For those with diasporic identities, art is a crucial medium for exploring and expressing their complex identities, histories, and cultural narratives, which are often marginalized or misrepresented by mainstream discourse (Lucy Lippard, 1990). McDaniel's paintings transform the narratives of the individuals depicted on the canvas—what she terms "subject-collaborators"—into images and sounds unfolding in the present space. Occupying the ground floor and basement of ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL, the exhibition will showcase the artist’s latest practice from 2023 to 2024, featuring a total of 11 artworks. These include 10 assemblage paintings that combine images, objects, and sounds, as well as one object created specifically for the exhibition.

Gisela McDaniel's paintings incorporate the subject’s personal belongings and voices as essential elements. McDaniel presents the intimate narratives of each individual in a multidimensional and synesthetic manner to her audience. Her body of work, which artistically blends fluorescent colors reminiscent of the radiant light of nature with the vivid voices of subject-collaborators, reminds us of the unique individuality of everyone living in the contemporary era. She combines images, objects, and sound—to depict a portrait of her subject-collaborators on canvas. Each painting strives to encapsulate the unique identity of that person. She refers to the small items received from each subject during the creative process as ‘consensual artifacts’ and integrates them into her works. These include personal items such as keys or a necklace, and parts of the body like hair or gel nails. The consensual artifacts not only carry traces of daily life but also subtly reveal personal preferences, individual histories, and cultural backgrounds.

McDaniel was born in 1995 in Bellevue, Nebraska, US. She earned her BFA in Art & Design from the University of Michigan in 2019. She is currently on the Art Explora Residency in Paris, France, and she will be participating in the upcoming Hawaii Triennial 2025, entitled Aloha No. She has held solo exhibitions at venues including ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL (Seoul, Korea, 2024), Pilar Corrias (London, UK, 2022; 2020), The Mistake Room (Los Angeles, US, 2021), Playground Detroit (Detroit, US, 2019), and The Schvitz (Detroit, US, 2018). Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at institutions such as Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf, Germany, 2023), Museum of Fine Arts Boston (Boston, US, 2023), FLAG Art Foundation (New York, US, 2023), ICA Boston (Boston, US, 2022), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas City, US, 2022), Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, US, 2021), CAC (Cincinnati, US, 2021), MOCAD (Detroit, US, 2021), Dhaka Art Summit (Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2020), Oolite Arts (Miami, US, 2019), and The Schvitz (Detroit, US, 2018). Her works are in the collections of various museums and foundations, including the Baltimore Museum of Art (US), Frye Art Museum (US), Hudson Valley MOCA (US), ICA Miami (US), Museum of Fine Arts Boston (US), New Orleans Museum of Art (US), Pérez Art Museum (US), UMMA (US), Aïshti Foundation (Lebanon), Blenheim Art Foundation (UK), Christen Sveaas Art Collection (Norway), Elie Khouri Art Foundation (UAE), Kadist (US), Ovitz Family Collection (US), Samdani Art Foundation (Bangladesh), The MER Collection (Spain), and The Perimeter (UK). McDaniel was included in the 'Forbes 30 Under 30 2024: Art & Style' of North America.