Daniel Turner (artist)


Daniel Turner 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 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. 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. In 2017, Daniel Turner completed EMP Step a site responsive sculpture for the restaurant Eleven Madison Park, in New York City. The contents of the restaurant's kitchen were melted down and cast into a monolithic step that sits at the entrance of the restaurant.

Awards

Turner has participated in artist residencies including Hauser & Wirth, Bruton, England, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas, and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York, NY. Turner served as a guest scholar at New York University, The Syracuse University School of Art, The Maryland Institute College of Art, The San Francisco Art Institute and The Old Dominion Fine art University.

Selected exhibitions

Turner is married to fellow artist Rita Ackermann.