Danielle Klebes
Midnight Adventure Club, Oil and spray paint on canvas.
My interest in the arts started very young. My mother is an interdisciplinary artist who had my siblings and I experimenting with all kinds of mediums (quilting, writing, drawing, painting, music) as children. I was especially interested in drawing and painting, so my mother enrolled me in classes at the Currier Museum in New Hampshire.
Formally educated, I received my BA in Art from the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, FL, in 2012, and my MFA in Visual Arts from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, in 2017.
My work is socially and politically engaged in that I participate in many community projects and my work
focuses on group interactions and themes of disconnection, which is especially relevant in the current political climate in the United States. I was recently in residence at MASS MoCA, one of the largest contemporary art museums in the world.
The building the houses the museum used to be a factory, so that is a contentious relationship between the new “artists” in town and the past blue-collar inhabitants. I made work focused on this dichotomy. I also recently painted my first mural in downtown North Adams, MA.
Tavish on the Rocks, Oil and spray paint on canvas.
Mirror!
I currently work with spray paint and oil paint on canvas. Oil paint came naturally from being formally educated within the arts. Spray paint came from my obsession with street art.
My work primarily consists of large-scale figurative oil paintings, but photography, reading, writing, observation, and collage are also major parts of my practice.
Someplace to Sleep Tonight, Oil and spray paint on canvas.
My current body of work explores the idea of ‘utopia’. In 1516 Sir Thomas More coined the word from the Greek ‘outopos’, which literally translates to ‘no place’ or ‘nowhere’. The idea of a perfect place, from the Garden of Eden to Atlantis to the Fountain of Youth, is ever-present in mythology and in history, but impossible in reality. The main subjects for my artwork are figures captured in moments of uncertainty and isolation, close in proximity but emotionally distant. They are positioned in 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. The paintings are not specifically narrative, but they include pictorial clues to the experience of the subjects.
I’m really into street art and murals.
Nicole Eisenman, Dana Schutz, Kerry James Marshall
A few pieces, but I’m dying to have a proper collection!
See More Danielle!
Website: www.danielleklebes.com
Instagram: instagram.com/danielleklebesart
Facebook: facebook.com/danielleklebesart