artists-IN-RESIDENCE
May 27 – June 10, 2020
Danielle Klebes
Danielle Klebes has exhibited at notable galleries and museums in New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Vermont, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Florida, Quebec, Canada, and Istria, Croatia. She is spending much of 2019 and 2020 participating in domestic and international artist residencies. Danielle received her MFA in Visual Arts from Lesley University College of Art and Design in Cambridge, MA, in 2017.
My current body of work explores and disrupts ideas of social expectations and gender norms by presenting queer bodies in utopic settings. ‘Utopia’ was coined in 1516 by Sir Thomas More from the Greek ‘outopos,’ which literally translates to ‘no place’ or ‘nowhere.’ A ‘perfect place’ is subjective and has a multitude of facades, but definitions are decided by those who have the power to write history. The figures in my work are often captured in moments of uncertainty and isolation, close in proximity but emotionally distant. They are positioned in liminal, natural environments with no clear entrance or exit pathway. There is a sense of the in-between without a clear narrative regarding what comes next. I employ a cool, colorful, and unnatural palette to highlight disconnection and lack of intimacy.
