Spanierman Modern is pleased to announce the opening on May 3, 2012 of Jasmina Danowski: Counterglow , an exhibition of new oils and works on paper that are Danowski's most sensuous to date. Large in scale, these images draw us into vibrant worlds of fluid forms and sumptuous color. The works are notable for the variety of their mark-making and brushwork. With this exhibition, Danowski wishes to express her admiration for the artist Moira Dryer who, before her death in 1992 at age 34 from cancer, noted her belief that “style is not a deliberate action.” Danowski states: “Following this in my own way has encouraged an openness to exploration that continues to motivate my work.”
Working on the floor in the manner of Pollock, Danowski uses an engaged notational technique that, in the works on paper, invokes plant life, watery depths, reflections, mist, and reverberations of light and shadow. Monet's water lilies are echoed in these absorbing images, while Danowski brings to them a luminosity and buoyancy suggestive of her delight in the natural world and a playful inner spirit. Floral and aquatic forms appear to be in a process of transformation, while lines loop calligraphically, seeking both connectivity and autonomy. In these works, bubbly effervescence interplays with hazy atmospheres, creating a feeling for the viewer of both release and self-awareness. A number of the paper pieces were informed by memories of the mountains of New Mexico, as are several vigorous oil paintings that capture Danowski's impressions of the view from an organic lavender farm and ranch along the Rio Grande.
Danowski was born in Stuttgart, Germany, and received her B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute (1990), and her M.F.A. from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (1997). She received two Pollock-Krasner awards (2001 and 2005) and has shown her work at Boston Center for the Arts; Dumbo Arts Center Festival, Brooklyn; Massachusetts College of Art, Boston; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson; Simon's Rock College, Great Barrington, Massachusetts; Spanierman Modern, New York; Westfield State Downtown Art Gallery, Massachusetts; and Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina . Her work is in the collections of the Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, and Westfield State University, Massachusetts.
