DANIEL W. COBURN

Daniel W. Coburn’s photographs shed light on aspects of the daily and domestic that are typically hidden beneath the surface. Through Coburn’s gaze, the mundane becomes magical, as he transforms the terrain of the seemingly quotidian.

Mysterious and uncanny undertones are embedded within the narratives carefully woven by the artist as he examines the psychological underpinnings of domestic life. Through his careful usage of poetic symbolism and carefully constructed metaphor, his photographs present complex stories within a single frame. Using entirely straight photography, the otherworldly elements of Coburn’s works become just the more surreal further provoking the viewer to question their reality. 

Daniel Coburn was born in San Bernardino, California in 1976. Coburn received his MFA with distinction from the University of New Mexico in 2013. He currently serves as faculty at the University of Sydney, Sydney College of Arts. Daniel Coburn is a recipient of a 2017 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. He was named as a finalist for the Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture the same year. His photographs have been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Mulvane Art Museum, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Filter Photo Space and La Fototeca Gallery. Photographs from Daniel’s comprehensive body of work have appeared in numerous international group exhibitions including Álbum de Família at Centro Municipal de Arte Hélio Oiticica, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His first monograph, The Hereditary Estate, was published by Kehrer Verlag in 2015. Daniel Coburn’s work has been featured in numerous publications including The International New York Times, Photo District News, The Pittsburgh Tribune, Lensculture, and Lenscratch. Coburn’s prints are held in collections at major institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, The Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, and the University of New Mexico Art Museum.