Daniel Ballesteros

Download Lookbook

Black and white image of a residential street with parked cars and a large tree overshadowed by numerous power lines and utility poles. A white pickup truck is parked on the right side, while nature is subtly woven in with trees and plants adding texture to the scene.
A black and white photograph of a residential street features a small white car parked in front of a house. A tall, half-cut tree stands between the car and the house, with more trees and several smaller houses visible in the background, along with part of a truck bed in the foreground.
A black and white photo depicts a large tree intertwined with an array of utility wires and power lines in a residential neighborhood. The importance of trees is highlighted by their presence amid houses with tiled roofs and a parked car visible in the background. The sky is partly cloudy.
A towering redwood tree with a thick, bark-covered trunk surrounded by lush, green underbrush in a dense forest setting.
Tall, dense redwood trees stand mightily in a forest, their bark richly colored and textured, surrounded by a misty and lush woodland undergrowth.
Tall redwood trees stand closely together in a dense forest with abundant green foliage. Sunlight filters through the canopy, casting a serene light on the scene. The forest floor is covered with a mix of shadow and light.
A tranquil forest scene with tall trees, including a prominent green pine and several barren ones, set against a textured golden backdrop, suggesting an artistic, vintage-style rendering.
A tall, majestic tree, likely a redwood, with a thick bark and extensive branches, stands prominently in a forest setting. Sunlight filters through the dense foliage, casting a natural, serene light on the tree and surrounding greenery.

Daniel Ballesteros

Born: 1980, Springfield, IL

Biography and Information

Biography

Daniel Ballesteros (b. 1980) is a third-generation Filipino-American. He never felt like himself in the Southern-Midwest-Anglo culture in which he grew up and found a sense of belonging in nature. In his recent work, Ballesteros draws attention to the ways trees adapt to survive in urban environments, growing out of sidewalk cracks or around telephone wires. The use of black and white photography and deadpan style harkens back to photographers of New Topographics, who documented the growth of suburbia. Ballesteros aims to continue a dialogue about human interventions with land.

In his new series Gold Leaf Forest, Ballesteros draws a connection between his ancestor’s survival and the adaptability of redwoods, one of the oldest species on the planet. He creates composite images of these grandiose trees and then covers the background with gold leaf as a way to honor the redwoods and their intergenerational intelligence. Ballesteros is influenced by the use of gilding throughout art history and the Indigenous Filipino religion of Animism – the belief that all objects in nature have a spiritual essence and are animated by a life force.

Originally from St. Louis, Ballesteros lived and worked in Santa Fe, Chicago, and New York before relocating to Oakland, where he currently resides. He taught photography at the University of Connecticut and St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, NY. Ballesteros has been artist-in-residence at the Woodstock Center for Photography, the Camera Club of New York, Bose Pacia, The Luminary, and Kala Institute. His work has been acquired by corporate and private collections and public institutions.

With a sensitivity toward that which does not belong I am fascinated by the ways a society coexists with the natural world, most poignantly symbolized by trees – in the ways they are strategically planted in three-by-three foot squares along the sidewalk to the way a seedling can find purchase in a crack of that same sidewalk and, left undisturbed, flourish. — Daniel Ballesteros

Education
2007
MFA, Photography, University of Connecticut, Mansfield, CT

2001
BA, Photography, Webster University, St. Louis, MO

Solo Exhibitions
2021
Gold Leaf Forest, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Springtime at Pie Projects (two person), Richard Levy Gallery at Pie Projects, Santa Fe, NM

2019
Gold Leaf Trees, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2018
St. Louis is Liquid Gold…, May Gallery, Webster University, St. Louis, MO

2014
Arthur Batut Museum, La Bruguierre, France

2012
Midwest Filipino, Chashama 266, New York, NY
Midwest Filipino, Mariboe Gallery, Hightstown, NJ

2010
Travelogues, College of Southern Nevada Fine Arts Gallery
Travelogues, University of Indian at South Bend

2004
SEE, Hejfina Art and Architecture, Chicago, IL, November

Group Exhibitions
2024
Trees, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2020
2020 Vision, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2019
Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA

2017
DeCentered, WAS Gallery, Bethesda, MD

2015
Made In Woodstock VII, Center for Photography in Woodstock, NY

2014
Alternative Process Competition, SOHO Photo, New York, NY, November

2013
New Works Exhibition, En Foco, Bronx, New York

2012
6x6x2012, Rochester Center for Contemporary Art, Small Works Show

2011
Winter Salon Show, Greenpoint Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, January

2008
Magic Silver 2008, Eagle Art Gallery, Murray State University, Murray, KY

Official Juror’s Selection Prize, Juror: Joyce Tenneson

2007
A Collection of Similar Houses, Side Show Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2004
Haunted, Artists Residency Chicago, Chicago, IL, November

Lectures
2021
Visiting artist, Inver Hills Community College, Inver Grove Heights, MN
Visiting artist, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA

2020
Visiting artist, Miami Public Schools, Miami, FL

2018
Visiting artist, Webster University, May Gallery, September, St. Louis, MO

2017
Visiting artist, Bushwick Community Darkroom, Brooklyn, NY

2015
Visiting artist, Meramec Community College, December, St. Louis, MO

2014
Visiting artist, University of Connecticut, Graduate Program, October, Storrs, CT

Residencies
2017-present
Kala Institute, Emeryville, CA

2014
Luminary Center for the Arts, St. Louis, MO
Camera Club of New York, Manhattan, NY

2013
Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY

2012
Bose Pacia Transparent Studio Program, Brooklyn, New York

Publications
2024
Looking At Trees by Sophie Horwath, published by Hoxton Mini Press, London, UK

Press Release
2024
Trees at Richard Levy Gallery

2021
Gold Leaf Forest at Richard Levy Gallery
Springtime at Pie Projects 

2020
2020 Vision at Richard Levy Gallery

2019
Gold Leaf Trees at Richard Levy Gallery