In his third solo show in New York, after a two year break from art-making, Daniel Oates’ new sculptural work makes a shift towards the mythological.
In the artist’s last show at 303, his hand carved, cartoon-like figures were reminiscent of childhood toys or advertising images, wearing worker uniforms suggestive of an idealized world. These figures seemed to possess a secure identity that was attractive to those of us living in the real, non-ideal world, while at the same time they highlighted the myriad of doubts about our own identites.
With his most recent work, Daniel Oates questions a society which is obsessed with facts and rational explanation, where belief and myth have fallen to the wayside. With the loss of myth, some part of identity is also lost, and this work is an individualized inquiry into how some sort of truth or meaning can emerge, given these losses. The new sculpture relies on the same cartoon-like abstraction of the human (and animal) body, the same labor-intensive execution, but the images are blended and merged, evoking something less distinct and more personal.
Daniel Oates recently showed several works at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, in “Dialogues: Daniel Oates/Mary Esch”. Catalogue available.