Danielle Callahan

 

  

 

Artist Statement:

 

My practice addresses this life of corporeality with frustration, confusion, and appreciation.  I break, keep, wrap, revisit, alter, and generally allow my work to be unstable. I voraciously study how things hold together and fall apart, and how I'm held together and fall apart. 

 

The precariousness of unfired clay feels apt when questioning the unpredictable, but I also turn to materials that immediately surround me.  Bricks, sticks, nails, wire, sidewalk cracks, rocks, and tree bark are employed frequently.  More personal items, like remnants of fabric from my Grandpa's torn footstool, or worn clothes of mine and loved ones, are sometimes added to that list.  Lines that connect and separate are painted, scrawled, stuck, wrapped, or drawn.  Cracks, cuts, and gouges are simultaneously scary, ugly, and beautiful.  

 

Aging, weathering, time, and impermanence are primary tools. Clay bodies and paper, to which I always return, have limits suited to display impacts of these forces. Some works are made very quickly, while others evolve over the course of a decade.  I repair, stress, secure, aid, mend, radiate, and am irradiated.  For me, art is a reservoir.

 

 

 

Bio:

 

Born and raised in Minnesota, now living in Pennsylvania, Danielle appreciates adaptability.  Her BFA in Studio Arts is from the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota, with a Drawing/Painting concentration.  Trips to Belfast and Inishmore, Ireland in the 1990's inspired new visual forays, nearly a decade after suspending making.  Callahan's sculptural glass explorations incorporated natural elements and resulted in a Jerome Foundation / St. John's Pottery Artist Fellowship.  The unique Fellowship spurred interest in clay and introduced her to wood fired ceramics.  Recently  (2023) she earned the ABCC Certificate in contemporary conceptual ceramics from A-B Projects.  Callahan's variety of life experiences-especially extensive time as a childcare worker with infants & toddlers-informs her experiments in art making.  Receptiveness to a range of materials satisfies her desire for both intuitive and intellectual adventures. 

  

Curator & longtime friend Allyson Evans observes, "Danielle's work with clay is rhythmic and simple, not fussy...(she) works with what happens, making purpose out of mishap in a beautiful way." 

 

 

 

CV

 

ABCC Certificate - Contemporary Ceramics program.   2023

A-B Projects, Los Angeles, California, USA

 

BFA Studio Arts - Drawing/Painting.

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA

Pioneer Fund Scholarship  for mixed media work.

 

Glass Artist Assistant to Joseph Becker & Peter Zelle, MN

Ceramic Tile Facilitator for Community Tile Workshops & Tile Installer.

"My North Philly" ceramic & painting project with Philadelphia Mural Arts.

Kensington & Nicetown / Tioga neighborhoods, Philadelphia, PA          2006-2007

 

 

FELLOWSHIP 

Jerome Foundation & St. John's Pottery Emerging Artist  (2000), MN

Johanna Kiln Fifth wood firing with Richard Bresnahan, Collegeville, MN

"Body of Clay, Soul of Fire" Traveling Exhibition Featuring Art of

Richard Bresnahan, Apprentices & Emerging Artists.     

MN, WI, ND & SD.                                                               2001 -2003

*sculpture in book Body of Clay, Soul of Fire by Dr. Mathew Welch.

 

GRANTS 

Contemporary Glass Philadelphia (CGP) Grantee.    2002

 

EXHIBITIONS 

 

National Biennial Contemporary Clay 2022 

Juror:  Fong Choo

The Art Center, Western Colorado Center for the Arts

Grand Junction, CO                   May/June 2022

 

Little Things Matter: Small Scale Sculpture

Juror: George Beasley

U of Southern MS Gallery of Art and Design

Hattiesburg, Mississippi           Oct/Nov  2021

 

Women of Woodfire

Juror:  Brett Binford

Eutectic Gallery

Portland, Oregon                   June 2021

 

HOME

Juror: Susanna Gold

Duke Gallery

Community Arts Center, Wallingford, PA.         February/March    2021

 

The Clay Studio National

Jury Team: Sana Musasama, Lauren Sandler & Kukuli Velarde.

The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA.                  July/August   2020

 

National Contemporary Clay 2020 Biennial Juried Exhibition

Juror: Bill van Gilder.

The Art Center, Western Colorado Center for the Arts.       June 2020

 

The Great Divide         

Juror: Bruce Dehnert.                                

Morean Center for Clay, St. Petersburg, FL.        Dec. 2019-Jan 2020

 

Earth Devised: A National Exhibition of Ceramic Art

Juror: Richard "Rick" Nickel.

The d'Art Center, Norfolk, VA           2019

 

Shapes of Influence National Ceramic Biennial

Juror:  Simon Levin.

Springfield Art Association.  Springfield, IL                             2018

 

Contemporary Clay 2018 National Biennial   

Juror: Doug Casebeer.

The Art Center, Western Colorado Center for the Arts.       2018                                               

 

HWD 12th Annual Regional Juried Exhibition

Juror: Patrick Mauk.

Rosewood Arts Centre, Kettering, OH                                  2018

 

8th Regional Juried Biennial Exhibition 

Juror: Ben Simons.

Corkran and Tubbs Galleries, Rehoboth Art League, DE     2018

 

A Celebration of Art & Life

Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine,

Philadelphia, PA                                                   2013, 2014, 2015

 

Philadelphia Photo Arts Center Member Show                2014

 

Landscape Exhibition

Large scale temporary mixed media installation.

Schuylkill Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

 

Hot Soup CGP Grant Recipient Exhibition  Philadelphia, PA       2002

 

Moravian Pottery & Tileworks Festival Artist, Doylestown, PA

The Dreamer Lens cd cover art collaboration, Chester, PA

 

INSTALLATIONS & SITE WORKS  

Labyrinth Sculpture Up-cycled Chestnut beam inlaid w/ceramic tree bark textured tiles, copper sheet.

Peter Becker Community, Harleysville, PA

 

Butterfly Tile Bench  Concrete butterfly form embedded with handmade wood fired tiles.

St. John's Arboretum Prairie Restoration Project.  Collegeville, MN   

 

Glass Rocks Blown glass forms integrated into existing stone walls.

Inis Mor, Aran Islands, Ireland

 

Private commissions.