The Collection

Dan Gunn is an artist, writer, and educator whose practice centers on the material and cultural histories of the American Midwest. Working across carved and painted wood, ceramic sculpture, paper collage, and textile-informed forms, Gunn investigates regional identity through the lens of craft traditions, folklore, and vernacular aesthetics. His work examines how woodworking, pottery, quilting, and other labor-intensive processes function as repositories of cultural memory and ideology, exploring the psychological, mythological, and social implications of landscape and place.

Gunn received his MFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2007, where he is currently an adjunct assistant professor teaching remotely. His research-driven practice interrogates the construction of authenticity and the shaping of regional and masculine subjectivities through Americana and Midwestern imagery—from wood-paneled interiors and roadside memorabilia to signs of agrarian nostalgia. Humor, pathos, and surrealism inflect his approach as he reconsiders the legacy of craft workers, folk artists, and artisans within contemporary artistic discourse.

Gunn has presented numerous solo exhibitions, including The Ungrateful Son (2024, GEARY Contemporary, Millerton, NY), Sawyer (2023, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville), of the land behind them (2022, Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago), Bunts (2019, University Club of Chicago), Ungrateful Son (2019, Good Weather, AR), Impromptu Airs (2014, Monique Meloche Gallery), and Routine Scenic Machine (2011, Monique Meloche Gallery). A forthcoming solo exhibition at PENTIMENTI (Philadelphia) is scheduled for 2026. His work has been featured in major group exhibitions at institutions such as the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City; Elmhurst Art Museum; the University of Missouri–Kansas City; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Hyde Park Art Center; John Michael Kohler Art Center; and additional venues across the United States. Upcoming inclusion at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is planned for 2026.

Gunn has been awarded residencies at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts (2022), Wassaic Project (2022, 2021), University of Arkansas (2019), Anderson Ranch Art Center (2018), Vermont Studio Center (2015), and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2012). He is the recipient of the Artadia/EXPO Chicago Award (2013) and a Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Individual Artist Project Grant (2021). His work is held in the collections of the Mayo Clinic, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, TD Bank, DePaul University School of Music, Fidelity Investments, the Joyce Foundation, and the Marciano Art Foundation, among others. Gunn’s work has been reviewed in Frieze, Art in America, Artforum.com, New American Paintings, Newcity Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, and other publications.