“Working Title” is the name of an enormous painted installation to be created at Thomas Deans Fine Art by a young Atlanta artist who is already building a reputation far beyond the city. Byrd’s installation will be created on the spot in Thomas Deans Fine Art’s largest gallery space. The artist’s conception is to create a mural encompassing the gallery’s four walls that will act as both underpinning and counterpoint to a group of paintings on canvas that will hang over and interact with the mural. As the title suggests, improvisation will play a role as the mural develops.
Byrd’s work is often complex and colorful, inspired by elements of graffiti and street art that has intrigued and inspired him since childhood. The artist describes his work as the layering of independent elements that compete with each other for visual dominance.
In addition to his work at Thomas Deans Fine Art, Daniel Byrd will make his debut with New York’s Albertz-Benda Gallery at the Untitled Art Fair during the Art Basel Miami celebrations. An Atlantan through and through, Daniel Byrd was born and bred in Buckhead. He graduated from North Atlanta High School and the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Atlanta. As a child, Byrd became infatuated with graffiti, the anonymous markings he saw painted all over Atlanta. Boyhood trips to New York City only intensified this attraction. In sixth grade, he got his first sketchbook; by seventh grade, Byrd remembers proudly, he had sold his first painting. His single-minded pursuit of art led to a bachelor’s degree in art from SCAD and a number of commissions from as far away as Washington, DC and Hong Kong. Byrd has shown work with Thomas Deans Fine Art since the spring of 2018. “Working Title” is his first solo exhibition with the gallery.