Artist Daniel Crews-Chubb is thinking a lot about history. Almost like an archaeologist of visual material, Crews-Chubb mines his mind for snippets of iconic images, sculptures, artifacts, and historic figures from cultures past and present, transforming these moments into memorialized amalgamations of these disparate elements and ideas. Densely layered, abstract yet still figurative, and rife with significance, his works and the marks that comprise these animated compositions are borne from a desire to bring life to complex mythologies and histories of the universe.
In his latest exhibition of new works, “Out of Chaos,” at Timothy Taylor in New York (September 6—October 19, 2024), Crews-Chubb presents a series of paintings and works on paper that continues upon his fascination with ancient stories and unanswered questions about the universe we inhabit. Without prescribing solutions or answers, his works provide an apt platform for viewers to decide for themselves what they see or how it connects to their own personal stories.
Though there is a singularity to his approach and complex series, a clear connection to Cubism and Abstract Expressionism and modern masters like de Kooning, Pollock, and Picasso is present, through a distinctive and contemporary evolution of process and concept. A refreshing reprieve from the hyperrealist compositions and mass media photographs we are inundated with at virtually all moments of the day, Crews-Chubb forces his viewers to slow down, stop, and think about what is in front of the viewer before quickly moving on to the next visual distraction coming our way.
Whitewall sat down with the artist ahead of his exhibition to talk about the works on view, the evolution of his process and practice as an artist, and what’s forthcoming for the artist globally.
