Danielle O'Malley
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Artist Statement
"My work is rooted in an environmental consciousness that derives from my concern for the Earth's rapidly declining health, and I use it to highlight the misuse and abuse that we inflict on the natural world. I make hand built, monumental sculptures using strong formal devices, gestural installation placement, sensual form, and conscious material usage to create work that is symbolically charged. My forms are influenced by domestic and industrial objects that I experience in my daily life that are indicative of eco-friendly tools and warning symbols. I marry my earthen objects with industrial surplus that is recontextualized through laborious textile processes, and the contrasting media charges my work with tension. The union of materials also serves as a metaphor for the complex relationship that humanity has with the natural world. My work is organized in two distinct categories that either show the imbalance within our local and global ecologies or serve as possible solutions for living resourcefully. My large-scale sculptures and installations offer my viewers a space to reflect on our hazardous environmental situation. I hope that my passion for making, my love for the earth, and my delight in observing the world around me in combination with my work will encourage people to join me in reconsidering our daily routines."
Danielle O'Malley is a large-scale sculptor working and residing in Helena, Montana. O'Malley received her MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, completed a ceramics focused post baccalaureate program at Montana State University, and her BFA from Plymouth State University. She has been a resident artist at: Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, and the Red Lodge Clay Center. She consistently participates in solo and group exhibitions. O'Malley's work can be found in the permanent collections of: the Northwest Art Gallery in Minot, ND, the Silver Bow Art Gallery in Butte, MT, and the Taoxichuan Art Center in Jingdezhen, China.
