Danielle Klebes has exhibited at notable galleries and museums including Albany Center Gallery in Albany, New York, the Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Helikon Gallery in Denver, Colorado, Southern Vermont Art Center in Manchester, Vermont, 77 Gallery in Rutland, Vermont, as well many other galleries in West Virginia, Massachusetts, Florida, and Istria, Croatia. She was an artist in residence at MASS MoCA from early November to early December, 2018, at Vermont Studio Center for the month of March 2019, and has several domestic and international residencies coming up in 2019 and 2020. Her work has been featured in numerous print and online publications including Juxtapoz, Studio Visit Magazine, Pikchur Magazine, Creative Quarterly, Allegory Ridge, Into the Void, Chaleur Magazine, Creative Boom, Supersonic Art, AT Journeys, and The Esthetic Apostle. 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 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. My work explores and disrupts the complex and unachievable concepts of perfection and freedom. 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.
