K. Imperial Fine Art is pleased to present Between Two Skies, its fourth solo show of the work of Danielle Rante.
Throughout her career, Rante has explored themes of the history of earth both celestial and terrestrial in relation to time and place. Through her art and inspired by science, she invents hypothetical landscapes and the complex ecosystems that support them. Her work seeks to develop an intimate connection and personal response to understanding the world.
In this new body of work, Rante explores our current struggles and curiosities of existing in a world that’s not solely wild nor tamed. This intersection between the natural and the man-made had caused new relationships, organisms and adaptations for balance to emerge. My work explores this shift in the natural world, something I like to think as between the real and imagined. I explore landscapes, observing and examining relationships in the environment. Combining my experiences and the use of materials drawn both from the commercial and the natural world, I contrast these transient items with ideas or images of ever present environmental touchstones. A star map or planetary body is represented by deconstructed and reconstructed silk flowers, collected and pressed flowers, seawater and sunlight. – Danielle Rante
Rante is utilizing materials that mirror this dichotomy of the built and natural world. The works are made on Okawara paper which is derived from a natural Mulberry bark and traditionally made and harvested in the circadian rhythms of the seasons as dictated by nature yet used in the construction of everyday materials necessary for the civilized world. The cyanotype and salt-printing processes she utilizes are vulnerable to the nature of light and solidity of the natural objects yet manipulated and guided by the artist’s placement and choices. By adapting materials from or produced by the natural world and then placing the piece in a removed context, I am further placing myself along the same continuum that I explore.
Danielle has exhibited work nationally and internationally including the International Print Center New York (NY, NY) and both the China Art Museum and University of Art Museum in Shanghai. She has been a recipient of many grants, including the Ohio Art Council’s Individual Excellence award and has attended residencies at Arteles Creative Center (Finland), Kala Art Institute (Berkeley, CA), Headlands Center for the Arts (Sausalito, CA), NES Artist Residency (Iceland), Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA), and Philadelphia Art Hotel (Philadelphia, PA). And her work is held in public and private collections worldwide. Danielle lives and works in Dayton, Ohio. She is currently an Associate Professor of Printmaking and Drawing at Wright State University. She received her MFA in printmaking from the University of Iowa in 2006.
Between Two Skies will be up August 1 – 31. The gallery is by-appointment only. Please contact kimperialfineart@me.com for inquiries.
