March 11 - April 9, 2022
Danielle Becknell is a Texas-based multidisciplinary artist exploring ceramics, glass, textile and film photography. Her eclectic and diverse practice is driven by personal experiences that become narrative. The creation of each artwork is a healing gesture – an intuitive expression of physicality shaped from perspectives of nature and unprocessed elements intended to both release and replenish.
Becknell has lived an eclectic life in seven countries, worked in fashion in NYC, studied sculpture at the National Art School in Sydney, Australia, then returned to Texas from an artist residency in Vallauris, France during the European Covid epicenter March 2020. After twelve years of wandering, Becknell has recently begun to grow new roots in her hometown of San Antonio. From the studio in her garage, this nomad seeking a home has finally stumbled upon what her soul has always craved: love, family, and creative freedom.
Danielle’s Statement:
In her ceramic series for Foreign Body, Danielle Becknell reflects on her 2019 emergency bowel resection and bowel obstruction, near fatal events that ultimately infused the artist with a new sense of life. While lingering effects of these traumas are still present, a liberation comes to Becknell in the making of works.
Jayné’s Bio:
Jayne Valverde is a Printmaker and Multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in San Antonio, TX. Valverde graduated from The University of Texas at San Antonio. She has exhibited her sculptural works in several galleries in and around San Antonio; Brick Upstairs Studio with Magaly Cantu, With UTSA New Media Collective at Presa House, 1906 Art Complex and The Museum of Human Experience in Austin, TX.
Using printmaking and sculptural elements, she explores common themes of mental and physical health, wrapped in a veil of personal fears and nostalgia. She is endlessly curious and perpetually exploring the light, the dark, and the occupation of our physical space — everything in between.
Jayné’s Statement:
Not too long ago, an ancient disease found its way into my system and nearly tore me from this earth. The experience has haunted me and warped my understanding of our physical fragility. This new understanding informs the content and physicality of my work. This particular series of work revolves around this idea of being actively disconnected from one’s own body. For me, this encompasses the larger anguish involved in being alive and the fear of the unknown; in other words, undiagnosed manifestations of the more tenuous side of living. The unavoidable pain that comes along with existing in my own body has never been something that is easily ignored or vanquished. Instead, I channel it into my work.
This project has been a welcome opportunity for me to share my creative process and problem solving with my family along with the ones I love and trust the most. I feel this way especially for the ones who experienced this traumatic experience alongside me but from the other side of the sick bed. That energy and support that I was given in one of my most difficult times is something I want to find its way into all of my work, present and future. It’s through an exploration of darkness that I am reminded of the light.”
Reception: April 9, 2022 | 6–10 pm
1906 South Flores Street
San Antonio, 78204 Texas
207.653.7608
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