Danny Gordo

Contemporary Figurative Painter

About Danny

Danny Gordo paints because he believes in creativity and struggle. He believes that images carry things words cannot, and that making a painting honestly is worth a life's effort.

His work is figurative, symbolic, and built with serious technical intention. It draws from the classical tradition not out of nostalgia but because those methods serve the kind of depth he is after. The paintings are layered and deliberate, populated with figures and animals caught in moments of genuine human weight that do not resolve cleanly and do not pretend to.

His work has been exhibited at the San Francisco Art Fair, the Seattle Art Fair, and in solo and group exhibitions across the United States. He is the 2025 recipient of the Robert B. McMillen Foundation MAC Award and a finalist in the Allied Artists of America 112th Annual Exhibition. His work has appeared in the Almenara Art Prize Online Exhibition.

Gordo holds a BFA in Illustration from the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, graduating Summa Cum Laude. He is the founder of The Copper Wolf Tattoo Studio and Art Gallery in Tumwater, Washington, where he mentors emerging artists alongside his own practice.

Exhibition and acquisition inquiries are welcome.

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A man with black hair and tattoos on his arms, neck, and hands, sitting on a bed in a room with white walls and white double doors, wearing a white shirt with small black patterns and blue jeans, resting his chin on his left hand and looking to the side.

  • Awards & Recognition

    • 2026 SCA Open International Online Juried Exhibition, finalist

    • 2025 Robert B. McMillen MAC Reverse Scholarship Award

    • 2025 Almenara Art Prize, Online Exhibition

    • 2025 Allied Artists of America, 112th Online Annual Exhibition, finalist

    • 2025 15th Annual PleinAir Salon Art Competition, September finalist

  • Exhibitions

    • 2026 San Francisco Art Fair, Two-Person Exhibition, Fort Mason Pavilion, San Francisco, CA

    • 2026 Seattle Art Fair, Two-Person Exhibition, Lumen Field Event Center, Seattle, WA

    • 2026 SW WA Regional Juried Exhibition, Group Exhibition, Leonor Fuller Gallery, Olympia, WA

    • 2026 19th Annual Juried CVG Show, Group Exhibition, Collective Vision Gallery, Bremerton, WA

    • 2026 Curious Figure, Group Exhibition, The Star Store Gallery, New Bedford, MA

    • 2026 Go Figure!,  Group Exhibition, The Washington Center, Olympia, WA

    • 2025 Oracles, Solo Exhibition, Harlequin Theatre, Olympia, WA

    • 2025 The Unfolding, Two-Person Exhibition, Ossa Skinworks, Olympia, WA

    • 2025 Seattle Art Fair, Two-Person Exhibition, Lumen Field Event Center, Seattle, WA

    • 2025 SW WA Regional Juried Exhibition, Group Exhibition, Leonor Fuller Gallery, Olympia, WA

    • 2025 South Sound Studio Tour, Juried Group Exhibition, Childhood’s End Gallery, Olympia, WA

    • 2024 Impermanence, Two-Person Exhibition, Ossa Skinworks, Olympia, WA

    • 2023 Halos, Two Person Exhibition, Ossa Skinworks, Olympia, WA

    • 2022 Adorations, Two-Person Exhibition, Ossa Skinworks, Olympia, WA

    • 2021 Deep Forest, Group Exhibition, The Copper Wolf Art Gallery, Tumwater, WA, USA

    • 2020 Red Shoe, Group Exhibition, RMCAD, Denver, CO, USA

    • 2019 Pastels, Juried Group Exhibition, Carnegie Arts Center, Turlock, CA, USA

  • Education

    BFA Illustration

    Rocky Mountain Academy of Art & Design, Denver, CO

    January 2017 - August 2020

    Graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0 GPA.

    Selected to show in the annual student exhibition for all 4 years.