Daniel Castro is a painter and mixed-media artist interested in challenging the traditional constraints of painting. By way of combining painting and sculpture, Daniel’s work breaks out of the rectangular format, creating assemblages that propose painting as object. Informed by his upbringing in New York City, Daniel integrates the cultural nuances and histories from his environment within his work. Utilizing a variety of materials, including found and discarded objects, insulation foam, concrete, and other “non-art” materials, Daniel’s multimedia practice weaves coded statements on contemporary social systems that are embedded in the materials he works with. Daniel examines themes of race and other social issues such as gentrification within his community while often imploring humor in a way that is subversive to the subject matter. In these juxtapositions, the complex nature of these subjects is explored, and the viewer challenged on sensitive topics.