Our World // Space Gallery :: Portland, Maine
INFO
October 11, 2019
Lia Wilson
I spoke with Bee Daniel on October 7th, the week after Our World debuted at the 2019 New England Art Book Fair. We sat in the gallery at SPACE and talked through the symbolism within their imagery, the formal influences of 60s and 70s children’s book illustrators, trans representation in visual culture, and doodling as an art form and survival method.
Most Likely // Friends and Neighbours Gallery :: Montreal, QC, Canada
“Most Likely”
“How to Be Shocked and Dismayed but Not Lie Down and Die”
-Alice Walker, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens 1983
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For our November exhibition Most Likely, we wanted to show artists that we have admired from afar and whose work deals with the deconstruction of socially imposed identities through the remaking of personal myths. Using different mediums and approaches, Laura Blondeau, Viola Chen, Bee Daniel, Tess Griebel and Marigold Santos all wrestle with resignation/ apathy versus a prefigurative politic of resistance.
...Futures that are yet to be imagined, let alone formed, cannot be crafted at the expense of the lived present moment and those with whom we share this time. Instead, they call for something new: perhaps a sort of "kind pessimism" where the future is neither desired nor dreaded, but teased out, coaxed, and unfolding before us, no longer wielded as bludgeon to rob us of the present.
-Micki McGeen, Cruel Optimism for the Neurologically Queer 2013
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Most likely to what?
Most likely to succeed?
As curators we would like to ask,
What does it mean to be successful in a fucked up world?
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Disposable Exposure // Oxbow Blending and Bottling :: Portland, ME
On September 3rd, 2016 Fan Si Pan and Maine Project hosted a photo-show/auction at Oxbow Blending and Bottling in Portland, Maine. The event was to benefit the Surfrider Foundation Maine Chapter.
We acquired 8 waterproof disposable cameras that expired in 1999, and sent them out to friends to shoot. When the cameras were returned, we opened them up and rewound the film, then loaded it back into the same cameras. The disposable cameras were sent to different friends who shot the same roll of film over again, creating double exposures.
Photos below: Corey Mckenna (Brunswick, ME) & Bee Daniel (Portland, ME)
Ode to Letters // Engine Gallery :: Biddeford, ME
Ode to Letters, a declaration of love of letterformsExhibition dates: July 31 – September 19, 2015
Opening Reception July 31 from 5-8pm
Ode to Letters is a declaration of love of letterforms and a showcase of the nation’s best traditional sign painters, letterpress printers, and graffiti writers. The exhibition will feature three parts, in keeping with the traditional format of the ode, first with Strophe, Sign Painting; followed by the Antistrophe, Letterpress; and lastly the Epode: Graffiti.
The Artists include: Ryan Adams, Patrick Corrigan, Curvazoid, Kyle Durrie, Fonse, Joey Hannaford, Cassie Hester, Greg Lamarche, Learn, Bee Daniel, Josh Luke, Mason Miller, Matt W. Moore, Noah, Tessa Greene O'Brien, Providence Painted Signs, Mike Rich, Will Sears, Snoeman, The Solo Artist, Starshaped Press, David Wolske.
Some Kind of Way // Thomas Young Gallery :: Boston, MA
“Some Kind of Way” showcases the work of two Portland based artists, Ryan Adams and Bee Daniel. Through illustrative language in two very distinct styles, the artists document their separate yet undeniably intertwined development as artists and friends. Their emergence from the graffiti culture and into the commercial legitimacy of gallery walls is an exploration that comes with no pretenses and presents as bold, substantial and unequivocally honest.
The two artists display their creative paths through beautifully crafted symbolism in multiple forms of storytelling. Incorporating elements of tattoo flash, train monikers, vintage comics and a nostalgic DIY culture, Ryan and Bee visually communicate the continuing emotional flux of our inner youth as we all watch ourselves move through the surreal dualities of adulthood. With a playful manner that reflects the freedom of their experiences outside of traditional spaces, Bee’s ethereal narratives interact with Ryan’s rich, cynical cadence in a very personal and candid dialog.Their work resonates with the struggles, successes and dissonance in the preservation of personal identity while navigating what is and what should be.
From familial street mentor-ship to becoming a formidable duo of fine artists, the two collaborate in their first visual conversation within Thomas Young Gallery that encompasses themes that are translatable to all of our struggles in transition and growth. Please join us in welcoming these two baes on September 18th to witness this documentation in the emotional intricacies of “Some Kind of Way”.
- Zo. E. Ling