Focusing his practice on Midwestern folklore and aesthetics, Dan Gunn considers the urban, suburban, and rural divides through elaborately carved draperies with inset landscape imagery, paper collage, and ceramic sculpture. Most recently his work explores the psychological and mythological implications of the landscape for the creation of regional self-conception. Gunn’s practice reveals a complicated relationship with labor and craft discourse; seeing time-intensive processes like carving as repositories of cultural memory and ideology. Gunn examines the legacy of craft workers, folk artists, woodworkers, and artisans that came before him by embracing humor, pathos and surrealism.
Gunn (b.1980, Prairie Village, KS) received an MFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2007). Recent solo exhibitions include Geary, New York, NY (2024); KMAC Contemporary Art Museum, Louisville, KY (2023); Flyweight Projects, New York, NY (2022); moniquemeloche, Chicago, IL (2021); The University Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL (2019); and Good Weather Gallery, North Little Rock, AR (2019). Gunn has also participated in group presentations at Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL; the University of Missouri at Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri; Elephant Gallery, Nashville, TN; University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL; Marine Contemporary, Santa Monica, CA; Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL; Lloyd Dobler Gallery, Chicago, IL; Columbia College, Chicago, IL; the Poor Farm, Manawa, WI; the Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, IL; and the Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, IN. Gunn was awarded residencies at the Wassaic Project (2021), University of Arkansas (2019), Anderson Ranch Art Center (2018); Vermont Studio Center (2015); and The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ME (2012).
Public collections include the DePaul University School of Music, Chicago, IL; Fidelity Corporate Art Collection; Kentucky Museum of Art and Crafts, Louisville, KY; Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA; Mayo Clinic Corporate Art Collection, Rochester, MN; TD Bank, New York, NY; and The Joyce Foundation, Chicago, IL. Gunn currently lives in New Milford, Connecticut.