Daniel González was born in Argentina in 1963; he lives and works in New York and Verona (Italy).
His work results from the research into celebration rites and cross-boundaries and it takes the form of public projects, sequined banner-painting and wearable one-off pieces exhibited in high-impact performances. González creates irrational and energetic worlds, areas of freedom in which existing conventions collapse.
In 2007 Daniel González developed, in collaboration with artist Anna Galtarossa, large-scale public projects. The first one, Chili Moon Town Tour, a utopic floating city produced by Maco México and Jumex Foundation, curated by Andrea Lissoni, premiered in Chapultepec Lake in Mexico City. The second one, Homeless Rocket with Chandeliers, was an installation centered on a crane 35 meters high in use on a building site in Lambrate, a suburban area in Milan. While on service during the daily hours, it transformed itself into an artwork at sunset, turning on neon lights, smoke machines and alarms.
González continues his “ephemeral architectures” production with Pop-Up Building during Witte de With Festival in Rotterdam in 2010, where he presented his first pop-up work, covering an historical church with cut-out cardboard, like a gigantic pop-up book, curated by Ruud Reutelingsperger. In 2011 he participated in the Biennale of the Museo El Barrio in New York with the special project Pop-Up Museo Disco Club, a sculpture-installation that transformed the museum’s 5th Avenue façade and its lobby into a block party lasting six months, curated by Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, Trinidad Fombella and Elvis Fuentes. In 2013 the artist presented the public installation Romeo’s Balcony, an idea of balcony installed mirror-like in front of Juliet’s House balcony in Verona, thanks to the collaboration with ArtVerona art fair, City Museums and Teatro Stabile di Verona.
In 2014 the design fair Ventura Lambrate invited the artist to the Milan Design Week with the projects Criminal Aesthetic Fashion Soundsystem and his artist-run fashion project, Daniel González D.G.Clothes Project, founded in 2004 in Berlin. In the same year, Noah Khoshbin, curator of Robert Wilson Watermill Center (Long Island, NY, USA) invited Daniel González to the Luminaria Festival in San Antonio, TX, USA, with the performance Bohemian Texas Street Home Fashion Show. In 2015 the D.G.Clothes Project presents the following performances: Aaaaaaahhh Anthology of a Liar, designed for Marsèll showroom in the exhibition space Marsèlleria, Milan, followed by Cheaper Fast Love, performance for the design fair Ventura Lambrate in Milan. In Rome the artist realized the performance, Portrait Fashion Factory, hosted in Santo Spirito in Sassia Monumental Complex. Following to that the artist presented the solo show Super Reality at Valentina Bonomo Gallery and in September 2015 Pop-Up Building Milan, public art installation for Marsèlleria permanent exhibition in Milan, transforming the façade of the building in a cardboard fairytale, a dynamic structure inspired by children pop-up books over 250 square meters. In 2016 the artist presents Paper Building a site- specific project that premieres the Foundation La Fabbrica del Cioccolato in Tessin, Switzerland. The ephemeral architecture on the facade of the former Cima Norma chocolate factory takes to the zero degree the history of its architecture. In Paper Building the application of white billboard paper to the external facade of Cima Norma is complete; it annuls the history of industrial architecture to discover a new identity through the paper interruptions and breaks at each door and window.
In 2017 González receives the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, presents the solo show Your Stories in Milan at Boccanera T Gallery and premieres Imaginary Country, the site-specific project for Made in Lambrate Association, a public art installation that uses the traditional “pasacalles” street banners from Argentina and the language from most common social networks. The artist takes back to real life the digital sphere, inviting passers-by to imagine that their neighbourhood – Milano-Lambrate – possesses all you can imagine but cannot have. Fantasy becomes the very first virtual reality device, before the Internet-era. In 2018 the artist presents Mi Casa Tu Casa the ephemeral architecture produced by Mondello Italo Belga, located in Mondello Palace Hotel garden in Palermo, collateral event for Manifesta
12 Palermo and returns to his home-land country Argentina invited by MAR Museo Arte Contemporaneo in Mar del Plata for the development of a community-based ephemeral architecture entitled #WhatsupArgentina Mi Casa Tu Casa. In 2019 the artist is invited by Fondazione Francesca Rava to represent Haiti in XXII International Exhibition in Triennale di Milano, curated by Mariano Pichler, courtesy Boccanera Gallery.
The artist exhibited also in Zabludowicz Collection in London, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Viafarini gallery (Milan), Neuer Kunstverein in Aachen, Prague Biennale and Manifesta 7 Trient/Bozen and in the following art galleries: Studio La Città (Verona, Italy), Diana Lowenstein (Miami, USA), Boccanera Gallery (Trient & Milan) and Spencer Brownstone (New York City). His works are included in several private collections, among them the Zabludowicz Collection, London, Fondation pour l’art contemporain Claudine et Jean-Marc Salomon (France), Luciano Benetton (Venice, Italy), Patrizia Pepe (Prato, Italy) and Tom Patchett (Los Angeles).