Daniel Turner (born July 22, 1983) is an American artist based in New York City. His media include sculpture, photography, video and drawing.

Early life and work

Daniel Turner studied painting and printmaking at Norfolk State University and received a B.F.A. from San Francisco Art Institute. Turner worked in construction and demolition before being employed as a security guard at The New Museum in New York City. He was hospitalized several times for psychosis resulting in an action titled, Burning an Entire Body of Work (2006) in which he burned all previous paintings to date. Turner now works primarily in sculpture often involving the creation or transformation of materials, objects and environments into architectural or ephemeral forms. His sculptures are often characterized by a specific response to site under a controlled set of processes. This approach has enabled Turner to base form on transposition, preserving a sensory link to geographical locations, cultural associations and human contact. These elements are present in works where an entire waiting room is cast into a series of solid bars, a former psychiatric facility burnished to a darkened stain against a wall, or a cafeteria dissolved across the expanse of a floor. The artist has sourced materials from various sites, including American power plants, Japanese chemical tankers, and Belgian prisons. In 2019, Turner extracted one metric ton of hospital beds from The Vinnitsa Regional Psychoneurological Hospital in Vinnitsa Ukraine which were archived, melted and recast into two solid forms. For his solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel (2022), the artist extracted elements from three sites in the Basel region that triangulate between architecture, the pharmaceutical industry, and psychology. These materials included several tons of heating radiators and oil tanks which the artist removed from the interiors of the chemical plant BASF, the pharmaceutical labs of Novartis, and former psychiatric facility Holdenweild. Material excavated from each of the three sites were melted into minimal forms and burnished into the surface of large scale works on canvas.

Daniel Turner, Particle Processed Cafeteria, (dissolved cafeteria), steel, fiber, dimensions variable, 2016.

Selected exhibitions

  • , (2024), Musée des Arts Contemporains, Hornu Belgium
  • , (2024), Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles, California
  • , (2023), Musée d’art Moderne de la ville de, Paris, France
  • ‘Our Ecology’ (2023), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
  • 'Three Sites, (2022), Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  • Humpty Dumpty, (2022), Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
  • Daniel Turner, (2021), The Maria Leuff Foundation, Columbia County, New York
  • Moments Between Events, Anne Appleby, Vija Celmins, On Kawara, Daniel Turner, (2021) Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York NY
  • Like The Wall Awaiting The Ivy, (2021), Musée des Arts Contemporains Grand Hornu, Honru, Belgium
  • Recent Acquisitions, (2020), Musée d’art Moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris, France
  • Platform: Paris/Brussels, (2020), David Zwirner Gallery, New York NY
  • The Extreme Present, (2019) Gagosian Gallery, The Moore Building, Miami, Florida
  • Les Abeilles de l'Invisible, (2019), Musée des Arts Contemporains Grand Hornu, Hornu, Belgium
  • Parcours, (2019), Art Basel, Basel Switzerland
  • Future Generation Art Prize, (2019), Pinchuk Art Center, Kiev Ukraine
  • Anne Truitt / Daniel Turner, (2018), Parrasch Heijnen Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
  • IPN (2018), Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France
  • Daniel Turner, (2018), Galerie Allen, Paris France
  • EMP Step, (2017), Eleven Madison Park, New York, NY
  • Particle Processed Cafeteria, (2016), König Galerie, St. Agnes Nave, Berlin, Germany
  • 110/ 120, (2016), Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY
  • Daniel Turner, (2016), Parrasch Heijnen Gallery, Los Angeles
  • Pilage / Fold, (2014), Gagosian Gallery, Paris, France
  • Clear, (2014), Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
  • Freezer Burn, (2014), Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY
  • Daniel Turner, (2014) Art Unlimited, Basel Switzerland
  • PM, (2014), Team Gallery, New York, NY
  • 2 220, (2014), Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp, Belgium
  • John McCracken / Daniel Turner, (2012), Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY
  • Daniel Turner, (2012), White Cube, London, England
  • New York: Directions, Points of Interest, (2012), Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy
  • Modern Talking, (2012), Muzeul National de Arta din Cluj-Napoca, Cluj, Romania
  • Daniel Turner, (2012), The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn NY
  • Painting Overall, (2011), The Prague Biennale 5, Prague Czech Republic
  • Four Rooms, (2011), The Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
  • Perfect Man II, (2011), White Columns, New York, NY

Public Collections

Monographs

  • Compresseur, essay by Denis Gielen, published by Musée des Arts Contemporains Grand Hornu
  • Daniel Turner, published by The Maria Leuff Foundation
  • Daniel Turner, essay by Elena Filipovic, published by The Borlem Prize
  • Three Movements (Bronze), essay by Roberto Toscano, Jack Self, Brad Wearstler, published by Karma Books
  • 5150, essay by Jeffrey Grunthaner, published by American Art Catalogues
  • Marjorie, published by Etudes Books
  • 2 220, published by Karma Books
  • Daniel Turner, essay by Franciska Zolyom, published by White Cube Gallery
  • Daniel Turner, essay by Jeffrey Grunthaner, published by Franklin Parrasch Gallery

Personal life

Turner is married to fellow artist Rita Ackermann.

External links