Artist Statement

At the heart of my work are the triumphs and challenges of women’s lived experiences, tracing the emotional and energetic exchanges that arise from such events while exploring how we embody and express these stories.

At the heart of my work are the triumphs and challenges of women’s lived experiences, tracing the emotional and energetic exchanges that emerge from these events while exploring how we embody and express their stories.Inspired by the spirit of Juliet Mitchell’s 1966 essay, Women: The Longest Revolution—published the year of my birth—these ideas form the core of my practice. I weave them into my maximalist, color-saturated paintings, sculptural assemblages, fiber works, text-based media, and performances, with each medium serving as a vessel to expand upon these enduring themes.

With a sense of humor and play, I blend personal and political narratives to explore all the big emotions of living in a female body—celebrating its strength, tenderness, magic, and hope, while confronting the intersecting hurdles of inequality, aging, health, and disability.

From the poetics of the body’s interior spaces to explorations of energy work and healing, each piece interrogates the paradox of empowerment within patriarchal structures.

Bio

Dana Donaty is a Colombian American artist, born in Columbus, Ohio, and raised in New Jersey. After spending twelve years in London, England, she moved to South Florida, where she lives and works. She earned her BFA from Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia, PA., and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Inspired by the spirit of Juliet Mitchell’s 1966 essay, Women: The Longest Revolution, Donaty weaves  these ideas into maximalist, color-saturated paintings, sculptural assemblages, fiber works, text-based media, and performance, with each medium serving as a vessel to expand upon these enduring thoughts. With a sense of humor and play, she blends personal and political narratives to explore all the big emotions of living in a female body—celebrating its strength, tenderness, magic, and hope, while confronting the intersecting hurdles of inequality, aging, health, and disability.

Similarly, in prior work, gigantic canvases depict larger-than-life human figures imposed on a playground of tiny fantastical creatures, speaking to the paradoxes of freedom and equality in an out-of-scale, absurd world.

She has recently exhibited at Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA.,The Invisible Dog Art Center, Brooklyn, NY; Mattie Kelly Arts Center, Destin, FL; Hera Gallery, Wakefield, Rhode Island; Flatiron Gallery, New York, NY; The SVA Gramercy Gallery, New York, NY;  The Camp Gallery, Miami, FL, The Coral Springs Museum of Art, Coral Springs, FL; The Art and Culture Center, Hollywood, FL; The Cornell Museum of Art, Delray, FL; The Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, FL; The Palm Beach Cultural Council, West Palm Beach, FL; The Arts Warehouse, Delray, FL; The Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami, FL; The Galleries at Moore, Philadelphia, PA.

Her work is in the permanent collection of The Coral Springs Museum of Art, private collections, and fourteen public art commissions. She has participated in Artist Residencies at The Arts Warehouse, Delray, FL; Frozen Music, Jaipur, India; Kriti Gallery, Varanasi, India; Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami, FL; South Florida Ford, Miami, FL.