Gerald Peters Contemporary is pleased to present Now is Nowhere Else, an exhibition of new installation work by Daniel Johnston.

Bricks were at one point the building blocks of our society. Like that of a pixel today, independently they are unexceptional and of little worth. So insignificant, they define the lowest cardinal number: one. In greater quantity, they paint a picture of human innovation and aesthetic development. The mason arranges a stack of seemingly identical bricks to create a structure of random pattern, ubiquitous in our material culture.

These bricks begin with clay dug from my land in North Carolina. Size, shape, and texture are determined as I make each brick by hand, then coating them with a slip made of either a local iron rich clay, yielding dark tones, or a local kaolin, producing lighter tones. The individual bricks are stacked between the large pots in my 900 cubic foot wood kiln, which is about the size of a school bus. Fired for up to five days and reaching temperatures above 2400 degrees fahrenheit, the placement of the bricks in various locations throughout the kiln creates a range of surfaces. Upon unloading the finished bricks, the stacks of varying color and texture present me with my palette.

Unlike the brick mason who somewhat randomly selects the next brick, I begin by choosing a single brick that is compelling in its unique appearance. The brick that will rest beside this first selection is carefully inspected and considered. And so, the canvas is created and painted simultaneously. The lone brick is a permanent reflection of what, how, and when it was made. In the mindful stacking of numerous bricks, a composition, an image, with greater meaning is created. The strength of the total sum of the bricks depends solely on the richness and individualism of each single unit.