Daniel McCoy, Jr. "Aurora and Dusk Approaching Solstice" by David Richard Gallery

DANIEL MCCOY, JR. Aurora and Dusk Approaching Solstice

DAVID RICHARD GALLERY

ISBN: 978-1-955260-85-5

Front Cover: Installation Daniel McCoy, Jr. Aurora and Dusk Approaching Solstice at David Richard Gallery Title Page: Installation Daniel McCoy, Jr. Aurora and Dusk Approaching Solstice at David Richard Gallery Back Cover: Installation Installation Daniel McCoy, Jr. Aurora and Dusk Approaching Solstice at David Richard Gallery

Printed on the occasion of the exhibition Installation Installation Daniel McCoy, Jr. Aurora and Dusk Approaching Solstice at David Richard Gallery June 13 - July 9, 2021 Published by: David Richard Gallery, LLC, 211 East 121st Street, New York, NY 10035 www.DavidRichardGallery.com 212-882-1705 | 505-983-9555 DavidRichardGalleries1 DavidRichardGallery Gallery Staff: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger, Managers All rights reserved by David Richard Gallery, LLC. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in whole or part in digital or printed form of any kind whatsoever without the express written permission of David Richard Gallery, LLC. Artwork: © 2016 - 2021 - Daniel McCoy, Jr. Catalogue: © 2021 David Richard Gallery, LLC, New York, NY Catalogue Design: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger, David Richard Gallery, LLC, New York, NY Artwork Images © David Eichholtz Installation Images © Yao Zu Lu

DAVID RICHARD GALLERY

DANIEL MCCOY, JR. Aurora and Dusk Approaching Solstice

David Richard Gallery is pleased to present, new and recent paintings by Native American artist Daniel McCoy, Jr. in his first solo exhibition in New York City and with the gallery. McCoy’s artworks have been included in several curated group exhibitions at the gallery since 2016. This presentation includes 10 paintings in all, of which 7 are new, created during the pandemic and based on the landscapes and skyscapes that the artist experienced each day as he traveled to work and then returned to the solitude of home isolation. Three of the paintings date from 2016 and 2019 that represent significant memories and influences from his early days after moving to New Mexico as well as his Native roots and upbringing in a hardworking middle-class home. In general, McCoy’s paintings are about his impressions and memories of his vast lived experiences and day-to-day life as influenced by his Native upbringing within a broader American cultural context with its myriad influences. He captures ordinary people living their lives in their daily surroundings: sometimes in the landscape, other times a view out a window or at a gas station as well as his own fictional depictions of Native American stories and teachings and the impressions made on him and his art. McCoy’s paintings are full of color, geometry, energy and cartooning that read as Pop art, a little Psychedelic and definitely narrative with influences of Surrealism, the landscape, patterning, graphic design and indigenous cultures. They are full of imagery, mostly comprised of detailed and intense black linework laid on top of blocky fields of color that not only represent the mountains and rocky canyon walls of the New Mexico landscape, but also the geometric tan, brown and beige pueblo structures on the Native American reservations. The complex layering of imagery and colors makes the paintings vibrant and subject to different interpretations depending on the viewer’s distance from the painting and engagement with the details and surfaces.

In the artist’s words regarding his newest paintings, “These paintings are atmospheric observations made between late Winter Solstice to late Spring all the way up to the approaching Summer Solstice. These paintings came out of a daily work schedule and a creative release after being denied access to my studio located on Pojoaque Pueblo for ten months during the Pandemic. I realized near the end of production that I am producing a desert study in the areas in which I live. Everything in my traditional background relates to seasons and astronomy, being separated from my cultural ties here in New Mexico, my observations of the surrounding environment, Sun and Moon positions have worked its way into the recent paintings.” About the Paintings of Daniel McCoy, Jr.: Cartoon imagery for McCoy has a foot in representational art and figuration while still being reductive with a flatness from Pop Art and sometimes text, which makes the paintings an abstraction. Thus, allowing the artist to convey a clear message without being overly realist. When he was just beginning his professional career, much of Native American art was narrative, mostly representational and realist, very much romanticizing cultural stories and the past. However, McCoy preferred something more authentic and contemporary, unique to himself, which was a little campy, not too serious and playful. His paintings are always conveying a personal message, relaying a tribal story or dabbling in Native mythologies as well as his own stories of his children, father and mother, including “Bob”, a figure frequently referenced in his work who was a long-time family friend and early influence on the artist. McCoy had a mixed heritage upbringing. His mother was Native American: her mother’s side of the family was from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, while her father was from the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, which were two adjacent territories in Oklahoma. His non-Native father was Irish and a biker, bringing with him graphic design, Pop culture, Harley motorcycles, the Hells Angels and rock ’n roll from the 1960s and 70s, all of which were a huge influence on the younger McCoy and ultimately his studio practice.

However, Daniel McCoy was also a product of the Native educational system starting with boarding school as a child through his academic studies at the Institute of American Indian Arts when he was accepted and moved to Santa Fe. As a result, he saw everything through a Native lens, but accentuated with the contemporary Western world through his father’s influences. Something that stuck with him from his Native education was the “flatline” Native art that was also a feature of Pop art as well as the cartooning from comics and Psychedelic posters from the 1960s. The use of line became an interesting fusion that melded his mixed cultural upbringing as well as a key formal element of his art making and tool for expressing himself. McCoy’s father—a product of Mid-Century American Pop culture and influences, including car culture, graphic detailing and pinstriping of cars and motorcycles—was also a frustrated artist. And, since fruit does not fall far from the tree, McCoy was also influenced by American Pop and car culture, comic books, rock ’n roll music and the West Coast counterculture of the 1960s and 70s along with the psychedelic artistry and cartooning of rock posters by R. Crumb and Rick Griffin. Daniel McCoy’s passion for graphic design, sign painting and music are all influences on his approach to art, the imagery and his own personal narrative not to mention the Pop culture influences from his own generation that included Hot Wheels cars, Star Wars, Allsup’s gas stations and mini-marts that were all over New Mexico. Allsup’s was a hangout for preteens and teens alike, as well as everyday folks pumping gas on their way to work and travelers getting a taste of the local culture and fare while filling up. Allsup’s made an indelible impression on McCoy as he once commented on the colors in his paintings, which happen to be their brand colors, ”I include the Allsup’s elements, because I believe they’re hubs of culture,” when interviewed by Alex De Vore that published on May 8, 2019 in the Santa Fe Reporter. McCoy went on to say, “Otherwise, I’ve really never stuck to stucco red or turquoise or sagebrush and mustard yellow.” The young McCoy initially rejected any interest in landscapes, earth colors and traditional Native realism in his artwork. However, as he and his artwork matured and espe-

cially after taking his children on walks and hikes through the spectacular and dramatic New Mexico vistas and mountains, the artist developed a new interest in the land and stories as well as their significance in his daily life and Native culture. This newly found interest in the landscape and solstice that provide the vitality for his heritage are now finding their way into his most recent paintings. While these latent influences from the traditional Native schooling are finding their way front and center in McCoy’s paintings, his signature cartoon style, Pop imagery, personal stories and vast experiences with the signature vibrant colors remain his distinct visual language and a constant in the new compositions. David Eichholtz New York, June 2021

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Sunrise and Setting Moon (A Desert Study), 2021 Oil and acrylic stain on canvas 42 x 108 x 1.5”

Daniel McCoy, Jr’s. Comments about Sunrise and Setting Moon (A Desert Study), 2021 10

I had one unprimed large canvas looming high above the others in my studio. I had intended it for this show, but I was running out of time. I had become such a meticulous painter over the years carefully applying one careful coat after another, I was worried that I was going to be late. My studio mate happened to be painting a large abstract on the floor with these tubs of color, large-customized brushes with broom handles and using lots of action. I enjoyed watching him paint and came over with a good case of “paint envy”. The next session at the studio I laid the canvas on the floor and mixed up ten different thinned down stains after a few hours a nice composition began to form. I was happy with the canvas with stain only but knew that I must have one painting that connects with all the paintings in this collection. I thought about a colorful panoramic of my surroundings, the wetland lagoons in La Cienega behind the studio I work at during the day. I wanted the color fades in the mountains to relate to the color fades in the other paintings. I wanted the circular sun and moon to join with the light reflection paintings created the month before. Lastly, I wanted the linework to bridge with everything I submit in this show. I finished this painting a little over a week ago as I write this statement, and I am just now beginning to get back to normal. I worked on this painting everyday after work and developed quite an unusual relationship with it. It made certain memories come back from years ago, I obsessed over these memories while painting this piece over and over. I found this a very strange experience to occur, after the session would end, I would return to my normal general concerns. The few people who got to view this painting during its production phase had instant interpretations to reveal. I enjoyed that it made some people, who were complete strangers to myself, feel something. To the left are the Sangre de Cristo mountains and to the distant right are the foothills and the Sandia’s in the distance. I wanted to paint the area in which I commute around daily. A desert recording of my temporary boundaries while the Sun chases the Moon.

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Detail: Sunrise and Setting Moon (A Desert Study), 2021 Oil and acrylic stain on canvas 42 x 108 x 1.5”

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Sunrise Outside Fia’s Window, 2021 Oil on wood panel 24 x 24 x 2.25”

Daniel McCoy, Jr’s. Comments about Sunrise Outside Fia’s Window, 2021. By late January 2021 I was finally given clearance to access my studio in Pojoaque. This was the first painting in production. I wake my daughter Fia up so she can get ready for home school just as the sun is coming up every morning. I always take a moment to look out her window to the east, this painting is about that experience. I begin to realize that the quarantine is influencing the areas I am painting. These locations are near home or my workplace.

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Detail: Sunrise and Setting Moon (A Desert Study), 2021 Oil and acrylic stain on canvas 42 x 108 x 1.5”

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Sunset at the end of Jaguar, 2021 Oil on wood panel 24 x 24 x 2.25”

Daniel McCoy, Jr’s. Comments about Sunset at the end of Jaguar, 2021. After a workday of painting, I would go home to my family. I would sleep possibly, then drive from Santa Fe to my studio in Pojoaque usually as the Sun was beginning to go down. I would remain at the studio working until early into the morning. This painting is a “Sister” painting to “Sunrise outside Fia’s window”. I would be driving down Jaguar Drive to turn left to drive north. Sometimes I would stop to climb the dirt embankment to watch the Sun set where Jaguar Drive ends. These paintings were painted side by side to experience the cycle of the day I am living. The techniques used in these paintings are beginning to simplify to color blends and less line work.

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Detail: Sunset at the end of Jaguar, 2021 Oil on wood panel 24 x 24 x 2.25”

Daniel McCoy, Jr’s. Comments about Muscle Shoals Light Reflection #1, 2021. I usually do not get the chance to watch television but when the opportunity arrives, I enjoy music documentaries of all types. I was watching a documentary on the Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama. Not only do I enjoy the music and history involved with this area, but I had also always heard that the original inhabitants of this area in Alabama were the Yuchi Native Americans, whom are a sister tribe to the Muscogee. I grew up a few miles to several Yuchi ceremonial stomp grounds still active today. So, I feel a distant connection to the story. As I was watching the show there was a street scene at night, and a photography filter that was used in this shot made a unique light reflection. The reflection made this incredible circular pattern in the night sky. The painting’s complete composition came completely from this moment watching television. I imagined the painting complete, a nocturne desert landscape of various color fields. I added stars but left out the linework. I really enjoy the simplicity of this painting and just allowing the color to take space. This painting was still time consuming being triple coated.

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Muscle Shoals Light Reflection #1, 2021 Oil on wood panel 24 x 24 x 1.5”

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Sunset While South of Town, 2021 Oil and acrylic stain on canvas 15 x 30”

Daniel McCoy, Jr’s. Comments about Sunset While South of Town, 2021. By 2020 the pandemic had hit here at the first weeks of March, work, production, and my shows stopped completely. I was not able to access my studio located on Pojoaque Pueblo not being a tribal member. I was at home for a few weeks before I began working for my employer remotely. During these eleven months of quarantine, I began to work on small paintings at home. “Sunrise while south of town” is based on a family drive through Bonanza Creek Ranch. By now the landscapes that I had begun two years previously had developed into a formulaic process. I first created the stain on the canvas, and the bottom landscape was added earlier this year.

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Detail: Sunset While South of Town, 2021 Oil and acrylic stain on canvas 15 x 30”

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Canyon Walls, 2021 Oil on wood 36 x 36 x 1.5”

Daniel McCoy, Jr’s. Comments about Canyon Walls, 2021. During the Pandemic I began producing lithographs and small prints based on an area in Abiquiu, New Mexico. I was amazed that with this one specific canyon wall I could obtain a different composition just by the sun changing directions or if I were to change positions of viewing. I made sketches, took photographs, and decided to work with such a complicated landscape. All colors are triple coated underneath the linework until a level of opaqueness is attained. I mixed a warm dark brown for the line work over the sky, while a dark blue over the horizon line and canyons. I paid close attention to the rock formations and bushes to every detail. The result was worth the two months of hard work, this one came remarkably close to the original painting I had imagined.

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Detail: Canyon Walls, 2021 Oil on wood 36 x 36 x 1.5”

Daniel McCoy, Jr’s. Comments about Muscle Shoals Light Reflection #2, 2021 This painting has the same influences as its predecessor, however I wanted for the dimensions to slightly enlarge, and I wanted the colors to given even more space. I left out the stars and I enjoy the composition even more.

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Muscle Shoals Light Reflection #2, 2021 Oil on wood panel 36 x 36 x 1.5”

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Where Trouble Began, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 50 x 65 x 1.5”

Daniel McCoy, Jr’s. Comments about Where Trouble Began, 2019. By late 2018 I had began painting landscapes. A style of painting I had purposely ignored for twenty years. I was beginning to really enjoy the New Mexican scenery while hiking and driving. My studio mate painted landscapes, the artist I worked for painted them as well. I began taking pictures of mountains, drawing from life, I added a southwestern palette into these new paintings. I also added influence from video games, quilting, Japanese architecture and maps to create a complex composition underneath the linework above, an abstract landscape as a foundation to begin with. “Where Trouble Began” is a painting where I introduced architecture against or in accompaniment to the surrounding landscape. This painting is a city scape of an area of town I am familiar with. When I first moved to Santa Fe, I lived on the campus of the College of Santa Fe on Saint Michaels drive, a college which is completely closed now. Saint Michaels was the first busy street I had ever lived by, full of Bars, riff raff and new Culture for myself to explore. This existence was drastic change from the two-lane highway I was accustomed to in rural Oklahoma. Now twenty-eight years later the signs have changed on the businesses, the old patrons gone, there are no remaining students creating art on campus, but the mountains remain, and a ghost of my formative years.

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Detail: Where Trouble Began, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 50 x 65 x 1.5”

Daniel McCoy, Jr. The Chain Of Being (diptych), 2016 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 72 x 3”

Daniel McCoy, Jr’s. Comments about The Chain Of Being (diptych), 2016. This diptych was created right at the end of 2016, it was the beginning of producing paintings with intense linework over simplistic fields of color. I believe that this linework or technique has taken myself right up to where I am now painting. The painting is a visual critique of the Western Chain of Being, a hierarchal structure of all matter in life. It begins with God, Angelic beings, Upper echelon of mankind, Mankind, Beasts, Animals and Sea life, Insects, and lastly Minerals. This philosophical concept was derived by Plato, Aristotle. Plotinus, and Proclus around 2400 years ago in classic period ancient Greece. The idea came out of a discussion in a museum studies class. The class was discussing the philosophy of this order and how it still relates to many western beliefs existing today. Comparing these ideals to traditional beliefs from my Muscogee background, I suggest merely that the order may be backwards and some additives to the ancient philosopher’s order are Irrelevant. On the left side of the diptych is the story told from the Earth’s point of view, on the right side the order is expressed inside a copperhead snake, a poisonous snake that I grew up in fear of. I discussed this idea with my Wife Topaz for a year, then obsessively painted the painting in the Winter of 2016.

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Detail: The Chain Of Being (diptych), 2016 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 72 x 3”

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Just Ordinary Men, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 24 x 36 x .75”

Daniel McCoy, Jr’s. Comments about Just Ordinary Men, 2019. By now the linework over fields of color had began to take over just about everything produced during this time. There were three paintings produced in this style. The first two were random movie stars and acquaintances placed in an overlapping cartoonist style, both paintings mentioned were sold the second they were finished at an Indian Market event at La Fonda Hotel. “Just Ordinary Men” is a painting that I slowly worked on. I thought about delicate racism issues, I thought about various Men in my life who have been an influence. No flash, simply good people with a conscience who have helped me in the past, that is all.

Daniel McCoy, Jr. Detail: Just Ordinary Men, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 24 x 36 x .75”

About Daniel McCoy, Jr.: Daniel McCoy Jr. has thirty years’ experience in art circles in Oklahoma and New Mexico. He is an enrolled member of the Muscogee Creek nation and a descendant of the Citizen Band Potawatomi. McCoy has worked in the commercial art field, and in Santa Fe’s best Museums and Galleries as an exhibition specialist among other positions. Daniel McCoy’s artwork has been featured in public spaces, markets, galleries and renowned Museums such as the New Mexican Museum of Art and the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts recently. He is currently a painting assistant to some of the southwests most successful contemporary artists. He currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his family. He will continue to produce paintings about his surroundings and life. McCoy’s Artist Statement: Painting, and mark making is essential for myself surviving in this society. Not only is painting how I support my family, but it is also a conversation I am speaking with other artists. A timeline I am leaving for whomever may listen, or whomever shall see. For my personal work, I add my fiction, surroundings, and personal narrative in the paintings. I believe it my most successful way to communicate to others. I can get more across with pigment and surface than I probably can verbally. Currently, I work with Oils, Enamels, Watercolor, Acrylics, Inks and Dyes. I apply these mediums to various surfaces to create the pieces. I have a sense of urgency to create more and learn new techniques as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

DAVID RICHARD GALLERY