Daniel Samaniego

Visual Description: From left to right, three black and white graphite and charcoal drawings hover out from the wall. The first figure represents the Goblin Queen, with locks of long hair, a grotesque goblin face, and bra-like top. The second figure appears floating in a body of water, with flowing dark hair; his torso and arms exposed. Lastly, the third figure, is turned to the side, their large left arm in view, and head turned as his gaze looks towards the viewer. The burly figure wears a leather chauffeur hat, leather vest, and leather armband. Candlesticks also integrate themselves into each scene, connecting the trio. 

Curatorial Description: Presented as a theatrical installation of meticulously hand rendered graphite pencil drawings, Becoming the Twice Upon a Time Trio depicts a wistful 1980s leatherman, a bathing dandy, and a queen of the goblins connected through a dreamlike floating triptych installation. The cast of campy characters takes direct inspiration from the hyperbolic sexuality of Tom of Finland’s drawings as well as the noirish glamour of 1960’s horror films. Additionally, the misfit “friends of Dorothy” characters from the land of Oz become a rooting element. Rendered from photographs staged and taken by the artist, the hyper detailed drawings depict elements of drag culture and the fantastic. The seductive, luxurious, and distorted aesthetic invites the viewer into the grotesque; the medium of graphite serving as an entry point to the queer experience. In the artist’s own words, the time consuming laborious task of drawing “connotes the relationship between desire, anxiety, excess, and monstrosity —conditions deeply embedded within the queer cultural imagination.” By creating and manipulating such characters and putting them in dialogue with one another, the triptych illustrates a feeling of kinship, community, and queer desire, taking up space not only literally but figuratively.

Visual Description: A framed graphite drawing presents  the torso of a male figure looking straight ahead. On each side of the figure, two organically shaped cut outs have been made in the paper, revealing masked figures reminiscent of a 1960’s horror film. The figures are framed by dark shadows and a muted graphite background.

Curatorial Description: With its graphite sensibility as homage to 1960’s horror films, such as Georges Franju’s Eyes Without A Face, artist Daniel Samaniego’s Is That You, Christianne? complements his triptych Becoming the Twice Upon a Time Trio, installed nearby. This single portrait illustrates a male figure gazing straight forward toward the viewer accompanied by smaller “wound-like” cutouts. Dark shadows surround the primary figure, and two masked figures emerge from background to foreground. While more intimately-scaled than the spectacle of the triptych, similar themes of queer desire and conversations around monstrosity emerge within this piece. Both artworks link immediacy to theatricality through drawing.

About

Daniel Samaniego is an artist and cultural worker based in Queens, New York. Combining fantastic, grotesque, and pop imagery, his labor-intensive graphite drawings and theatrically scaled drawing installations explore the interplay between queer identity, desire, and monstrosity. Recent exhibitions include Lined and Torn: Paper Works from The Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection in Las Vegas (2023) and I’ll Be Your Mirror: Reflections on the Contemporary Queer presented by Mighty Real Queer Detroit (2024). He received a BFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and is currently an artist in residence at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space.