Danielle Klebes
Danielle Klebes lives and works at Wassaic Project in Wassaic, NY. She has exhibited in notable galleries and museums throughout the United States, Europe, and Canada. These include *Keeping Company* (2023), a solo show at NARS Foundation in Brooklyn, NY; *NOWHERE* (2023), a solo show at Jennifer Terzian Gallery in Litchfield, CT; *Midnight Adventure Club* (2022), a solo show at AVA Gallery in Lebanon, NH; *House Fire House Party* (2020), a solo show at Installation Space in North Adams, MA; *Aimless Pilgrimage* (2020), a solo show at L'Atelier Silex Gallery in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada; *Fifty* (2022), a group show at MoCA Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL; *Summer* (2022), a group show at Galleri Christoffer Egelund in Copenhagen, Denmark; *Portraiture Today* (2021), a group show at the Springfield Museums, Springfield, MA; and *Confluence of Tongues* (2021), a group show at Grove Collective in London, UK. Danielle’s work has appeared on the cover of several publications, including *Cream City Review*, *Artscope Magazine*, *Studio Visit Magazine*, *Gertrude Press*, and *Prairie Schooner*. She received her MFA in Visual Arts from Lesley University College of Art and Design in Cambridge, MA, in 2017.
Statement
Around the beginning of COVID, I rented a furnished apartment for a few months from a Hemingway-type. It had taxidermy of a big-horned sheep and a boar mounted on the walls. There was a liquor cabinet that slid to reveal a secret room with stained glass and a big bed. I felt an inexplicable sense of ownership and pride for that apartment. There was something so funny to me about a queer female and her queer friends existing in that space. In my current body of work, I present a variety of intimate interior scenes inspired by that apartment. The figures are comfortable enough to be vulnerable—they are lost in thought, often naked, surrounded by objects and community in den-like environments.
www.danielleklebes.com
What is your first memory creating?
I can't remember a time before creating. My mother is super creative and had my siblings and me experimenting with all kinds of mediums (quilting, writing, drawing, painting, music). As small kids, my sister and I were always trying to make "businesses" where we would sell random handmade items like pillows and stationery. I was really into drawing and painting and took classes at the Currier Museum in New Hampshire as a kid.
What is your relationship to your medium? What draws you to it?
I love the physicality, directness, and rawness of painting. It has such a long history and feels so outside of technology and the modern world in a really amazing way.
What is the main thing you hope your audience takes away from your art?
I want my work to feel understandable and beautiful at first, but I want it to get a little stranger and uncomfortable the longer someone spends with it.
Tell us about a challenge you overcame last year.
I don't know that this is a challenge I overcame, but it was an ambitious project that took me well outside of my comfort zone. In Spring 2023, I created a large-scale installation transforming the top floor of Wassaic Project into the vibrant aftermath of a party taking place in a colorful queer "man cave" apartment. The installation explored the complexities of queer identity and its relationship to the intimate spaces we occupy, especially borrowed spaces. For the installation, I painted nearly every square inch of the 400+ square foot top floor of the Wassaic Project gallery space and included nearly 150 individual artworks, the majority of which I made specifically for the installation.
What is your main goal or resolution this year in terms of your art practice?
I really want to slow down and give myself time to experiment! I have a couple of shows coming up in May and June, which I'm super stoked about, but after that, I kind of want to have a clear schedule for a little while so that I can be riskier and wilder in the studio.
