2022 Catalogue Archive

Playing off of an untouched, wholesome version of the American Midwest, artist Dan Gunn uses the folk art vocabulary of the region to explore the divide between rural and urban identities. The kitsch and tchotchkes Gunn employs push against the narrative of pastoral nature and the American innocence. Ungrateful Son, a series of ceramic frog light fixtures, coopts the marble and frog Americana folk art object from the 1960s and 70s, adding or altering the lights or size of the frogs to heighten the surreal oddness of the concept. They are comically beautiful, squatting in the corners of Gunn’s installations as an acknowledgement of the slippery slope between wood and ceramic crafts in contemporary art and the nostalgic world of folk art. Gunn is an artist, teacher, and writer living in Chicago. His work has been included in solo and group shows around the US.