With an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Danica Phelps (New York, 1971) has spent nearly three decades focusing on establishing the relationship between money and her everyday life through her art. This focus – as well as designing a system to mirror it in a body of work comprising pencil and watercolor drawings – has led to a modus operandi that both reflects and complexifies the economic realities, and incorporates intimate aspects of her personal life, not just in relation to herself, but also to everything that surrounds her. In doing so, the idiosyncrasies of the art market and the social, political, and environmental concerns facing the planet commingle with her daily activities, social relationships, and the experience of watching her child grow.
For instance, in the spring of 2016 during the Syrian war, Phelps started The Gratitude Project, a series of drawings that were sold to fund various organizations. These drawings depicted everyday objects and activities that the artist associated with her life from a position of privilege: “Clean water to drink, seeds to plant food in the garden and water that comes out of a tap to water them, the constant presence of my son, the presence in my life that I am most grateful for.”
Since 1998, when those initial works from her unique system were exhibited at the historic White Columns space in New York, Phelps has participated in the Vienna Biennale 2015: Ideas for Change and has featured in solo and group exhibitions at institutions such as MoMA PS1 (New York, USA, 1999); the Sala Montcada (Barcelona, Spain, 2000); the New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York, USA, 2003); the Brooklyn Museum of Art (New York, USA, 2004); Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art (Stockholm, Sweden, 2006); the Contemporary Arts Museum (Houston, USA, 2007); Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig (Vienna, Austria); Casino-Luxembourg (Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, 2010); Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg, Germany, 2016); the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles, USA); and the Weatherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro, North Carolina, USA, 2017). Her work is held in many of these collections, as well as others such as the Whitney Museum, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, the Seattle Art Museum, Fundación la Caixa, and the Colección Banco de España.
With an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Danica Phelps (New York, 1971) has spent nearly three decades focusing on establishing the relationship between money and her everyday life through her art. This focus – as well as designing a system to mirror it in a body of work comprising pencil and watercolor drawings – has led to a modus operandi that both reflects and complexifies the economic realities, and incorporates intimate aspects of her personal life, not just in relation to herself, but also to everything that surrounds her. In doing so, the idiosyncrasies of the art market and the social, political, and environmental concerns facing the planet commingle with her daily activities, social relationships, and the experience of watching her child grow.
For instance, in the spring of 2016 during the Syrian war, Phelps started The Gratitude Project, a series of drawings that were sold to fund various organizations. These drawings depicted everyday objects and activities that the artist associated with her life from a position of privilege: “Clean water to drink, seeds to plant food in the garden and water that comes out of a tap to water them, the constant presence of my son, the presence in my life that I am most grateful for.”
Since 1998, when those initial works from her unique system were exhibited at the historic White Columns space in New York, Phelps has participated in the Vienna Biennale 2015: Ideas for Change and has featured in solo and group exhibitions at institutions such as MoMA PS1 (New York, USA, 1999); the Sala Montcada (Barcelona, Spain, 2000); the New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York, USA, 2003); the Brooklyn Museum of Art (New York, USA, 2004); Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art (Stockholm, Sweden, 2006); the Contemporary Arts Museum (Houston, USA, 2007); Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig (Vienna, Austria); Casino-Luxembourg (Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, 2010); Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg, Germany, 2016); the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles, USA); and the Weatherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro, North Carolina, USA, 2017). Her work is held in many of these collections, as well as others such as the Whitney Museum, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, the Seattle Art Museum, Fundación la Caixa, and the Colección Banco de España.