Daniel Handal is a Palestinian-Honduran artist who lives and works in New York City. His work explores issues of gender, sexuality, identity, and representation and has been exhibited nationally and internationally at the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe; Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston, Texas; The powerHouse Arena, New York City; the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; MKII, London; and many others. Handal’s work has been written about in publications including The Huffington Post, Slate and Hyperallergic. He has participated in residencies at The Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, New York; the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, Ithaca, New York; and the Center for Photography at Woodstock, New York. Handal currently serves on the board of directors of Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York and is represented by CLAMP in New York.
ARTIST STATEMENT
A recurring theme in my work is the exploration of identity and authenticity, often framed through the lens of desire, representation, and the tension between truth and illusion. My projects frequently examine the ways people construct their identities, whether through gender, sexuality, or societal roles, and how these identities intersect with larger cultural narratives.
Projects like Female Masking and Final Girls delve into gender performance and transformation, while Engaños and Pajaritos explore the balance between illusion and liberation, both in personal identity and aesthetic representation. There's a continuous thread of challenging traditional perceptions—whether through photographic techniques, subject matter, or the display methods I use—creating a dialogue around authenticity versus artifice.
Additionally, the theme of nonconformity appears often, as I reflect on individuals or groups who exist outside conventional norms, seen in projects like Thunder Nation and The World is Bound. My use of historical and cultural references also ties into this, grounding my work in a larger narrative of how identity is both personal and collective, shaped by history yet constantly evolving.
