She/Her
Bio:
Born and raised in Minnesota, now living in Pennsylvania, Danielle appreciates adaptability. She has a BFA in Studio Arts from the University of Minnesota, with a Drawing/Painting concentration. In the late 1990's, trips to Belfast and Inishmore, Ireland inspired new visual interests, nearly a decade after suspending making. Her foray into glass sculpture segued into a Jerome Foundation / St. John's Pottery Artist Fellowship. This was her introduction to wood fired ceramics and the possibilities of clay. Callahan's variety of life experiences-especially extensive time as a Childcare Worker with infants & toddlers-continues to inform her experiments in art making.
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."
Artist Statement:
My work addresses this life of corporeality with frustration, confusion, and appreciation. I voraciously study how things hold together and fall apart, and how I am held together and fall apart. I break, keep, wrap, revisit, alter, and generally allow my work to be unstable.
I find the precariousness of unfired clay is most apt when questioning the unpredictable, but I also turn to the materials that immediately surround me-bricks, sticks, nails, wire, sidewalk cracks, rocks, and tree bark are employed frequently. Sometimes personal items like worn clothes of mine and loved ones, or remnants of fabric from my Grandpa's torn footstool, are added to that list. Lines that connect and separate are painted, scrawled, stuck, wrapped, or drawn. Cracks, cuts, and gouges are scary, ugly, and beautiful. Clay bodies and paper, to which I always return, have limits suited to display the impacts of these forces.
Aging, weathering, time, and impermanence are the primary tools of my practice. While some works are made very quickly, others evolve over the course of a decade. I repair, stress, secure, aid, mend, radiate, and am irradiated. For me, art is a reservoir.
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
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/tree bark textured tiles, copper sheet.
Peter Becker Community, Harleysville, PA
"My North Philly" Multi-year project with Philadelphia Mural Arts.
Community Tile Workshop Artist Facilitator & Installer
Kensington & Nicetown / Tioga neighborhoods, Philadelphia, PA 2006-2007
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 sculpture forms integrated into existing stone walls.
Inis Mor, Aran Islands, Ireland
Private commissions.