A couple of times a year I like to profile an up-and-coming artist who, in big and small ways, is outré. Art by such people isn’t necessarily wild and intense, though the work by today’s artist, Daniel Giordano’s, is. Rather, the art is droll or uncanny or extraordinary, still coherent, but enigmatic. Unorthodox materials are a plus. I’d call Giordano a maximalist.
Last week, I visited Giordano (b. 1988), a sculptor, at his studio in Newburgh in New York’s Hudson Valley. I’d just seen Crystal Blue Persuasion, an exhibition of his work at the Hyde Collection, a treasure and a find in little Glens Falls, north of Saratoga. Talk about unorthodox. For Giordano 101, and for first impressions, I’ll start with Study for Brother as Merlin’s Beard, finished in 2022. It’s quirky, weird, not conventionally beautiful, and it’s two-legged, so I can say it’s elfin — at 27 inches not big but full of mischief. “Merlin’s beard” is an expression of surprise, like “blimey,” and from Harry Potter.
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