Danielle Orchard (US)
The paintings and drawings by Danielle Orchard unveil intimate sceneries populated by nude women. Motifs familiar from the Western canon – Manet’s Olympia or Picasso’s black lined profile noses – yet here the male gaze is entirely absent. While redeploying cubism's masculinist language, Orchard frees her subjects from the confinements of the easily accessible Venusian smile. Though it is tempting to read it as a specific reaction, say, against the probing eyes of media or men, what Orchard brings us instead is a present moment of resplendent privacy-in-itself.
Danielle Orchard (b. 1985) lives and works in Brooklyn, USA. She holds an MFA in painting from Hunter College. Recent exhibitions include A Face For Every Season, Half Gallery, Los Angeles (2021), Eros Unlimited, Eighteen, Copenhagen, Denmark (2020), Mother’s Magazines, Jack Hanley, New York, USA (2020) and 3PM, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark (2019).
