SPRING 2025 EXHIBITION

FUTURE FOSSIL:
by DANIEL SOUTHARD

Opening reception: Friday, May 16, 6-8p
On view: May 16-July 6, 2025 at Michelle Thomas Fine Art Gallery + Studio

Daniel Southard is an interdisciplinary artist, photographer, and writer living in San Francisco. He utilizes found materials for installations, sculpture, cartography, walking, sound art, and publications to create works which reflect his concern with humanity’s place in the land, exploring the multiple meanings of everyday materials, their history, future, and form. He is currently an affiliate artist at Headlands Center for the Arts.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Humanity has become untethered from notions that once seemed fixed and eternal. The very idea of a geological era encompassing millions of years and moving at a slow, almost imperceptible, pace has melted away with the dawning of the Anthropocene. My artistic practice examines humanity’s evolving relationship to the land as well as meanings held within the land itself.

Combining found materials with photography, sculpture, writing, cartography, walking, sound art, and publications, my research-based works reflect a deep concern with humanity’s place in the land. Art practice is inherently inclusive and borderless, which frees me to go beyond the constraints of academic research to make connections across disciplines that are often sealed off from one another.

Our world is on the brink of multiple simultaneous catastrophes, yet we are more isolated, polarized, atomized than ever before. Seized by the inertia of this seemingly impossible dynamic, we are unable to act in the massive group effort needed to meet these challenges. My art attempts to communicate in new ways, bypassing this toxic separatist/individualist dynamic by creating immersive participatory installations. I work by exploring the multiple meanings of everyday materials—their history, future, and form—attempting to foster a clear-eyed understanding of our current plight.

Learn more about Daniel Southard HERE