Painting, Acrylic, styrofoam, fabric, and clay on canvas

Daniel Castro

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Daniel Castro is a Puerto Rican artist from the Bronx. His multi-media works consist of medium to large-scale paintings and assemblages that utilize various materials such as foam core, canvas, clay, and other found materials. These pieces chronicle specific events from Castro’s life that are vivid in his memory and serve as a love letter to The Bronx, where he was born and raised and still works. Though his works most often utilize self-portraiture, Castro does this not only to speak to his own expe- rience but to the experiences of a broader group of people within his community – specifically people of color, who can identify with what he is portraying. The figures in his pieces tend to be “body-less,” depict- ing only the clothing that the figure is wearing as a metaphor for the discrimination that minorities face based on their outward appearance. Humor is used in these works to make them more accessible and to give a light-hearted quality on the surface, which then invites the viewer to dig deeper into the more severe themes weaved into the works.