Bio

Daniel Goldstein is a multimedia artist who was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado. He graduated from the University of Denver in 2020 with a BFA in Studio Art. In addition to DU, he has studied abroad at Studio Arts College International in Florence, Italy and has received a scholarship for a sculpture workshop at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado.

Artist Statement

 I draw inspiration and subject matter from collected objects, both from my own childhood and from antiques. I play with objects such as toys and old candlesticks in order to draw out the memories, either real or associative, imbued within those objects. 

My current work responds to the rigidity and cynicism that come with the transition from childhood to adulthood. In a world where the enjoyment of life and the act of play is a privilege, if not actively discouraged, my work aims to capture the childlike sense of freedom that we seem to lose. I observe, both in myself and in my peers, a pressure to constantly work and fulfill conventional ideas of success, which leads to fatigue and ultimately breeds such cynicism. Though I’ve explored these themes through a variety of media, including drawing, painting, and jewelry, photography is currently key to my process.

 Photographs of scenes that I imagine with my childhood toys recalls the experience of playing pretend games as a kid, where absolute control of the world rests in the hands of the individual. Through media such as sculpture and jewelry, I respond to found objects like forgotten brass candlesticks. I seek to recreate a space where the rules that govern our lives now are obsolete and the story is what each individual interprets from the images and objects presented. I gravitate towards the objects with which I have the loosest relationship, whether they are found objects or my most underappreciated toys, attempting to draw a narrative from my own ambiguous relationships with them. The goal of my practice is not to create a space for physical play, but to provoke imagination with moments of humour, absurdity, or escapist fantasy.

CV