Agaga, 2025
McDaniel works primarily with women, non-binary, and femme-identifying subject-collaborators who identify as Black, Micronesian, Indigenous to Turtle Island, Asian, Latinx, and mixed-race. McDaniel interweaves oil painting, motion-activated audio, found objects, and oral histories to create immersive works that “talk back” to the viewer and subvert the traditional power dynamics of portraiture. Her work responds to systemic silencing and the legacy of trauma — including her own experiences as a survivor of genderbased violence — while creating space for collective acknowledgment, resilience, and healing. McDaniel holds a BFA from the University of Michigan.
Gisela McDaniel (b. 1995, Bellevue, Nebraska) is a diasporic, Indigenous Chamoru artist whose multidisciplinary practice centers portraiture, collaboration, healing, and the reclamation of voice. Recent solo exhibitions include All These Parts Make Up Me, Arario Gallery, Seoul, Japan (2024); Manhaga Fu’una, Pilar Corrias, London, UK (2022); Sakkan Eku LA, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, USA (2021); and Making WAY/FARING Well, Pilar Corrias, London, UK (2020).
Selected group exhibitions include ALOHA NŌ, Honolulu Museum of Art, Hawaii, USA (2025); Tender Loving Care, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA (2023); The inescapable interweaving of all lives, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany (2023); Thinking of You, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, USA (2023); A Place for Me: Figurative Painting Now, ICA Boston, Massachusetts, USA (2022); The Regional, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (2022); How Do We Know the World?, Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland, USA (2021); Dual Vision, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Michigan, USA (2021).
McDaniel was named to Forbes 30 Under 30: Art & Style in 2024.