These paintings come from a series of studies on refraction, in which Dani explores linear perspective and planes of light. An overarching theme of her work is the creation of confined spaces in its most simplistic form: walls. Because the artist christened these works “studies,” I initially viewed these works as partial, exploratory imagery for a grander project. However, the scale and completeness of the paintings elevates the studies, removing them from a sketchbook and hanging them on a wall. While the artist eventually intends to create more complete, enclosed spaces with these planes, these paintings seem to speak less to the isolation of a confined basement space and speak more to the conceptual weight of the studies themselves. The floating planes feels like a half-spaces, engaging me in the gentleness and loveliness of the imagery, but not attempting to pull me into a physical space. These two pieces show a more minimalist study and a more complex one, respectively, as the forms transition from shapes to space. This building of layers creates a different space for the viewer with each successive complication.

Both pieces use naturalistic colors and textures to convey geometric forms. The color scheme of the warm orange wood, sky blue and bright white serves to contrast the sharper geometric forms and highlights the ephemeral beauty of a plane of light. Dani’s use of wooden panels, raw and undisguised, mirrors the materials of construction used for the real spaces she references. This use of material cleverly adds another plane, or wall, to those painted on the surface, beginning to explore space and place through material as well as shape. The toughness and reality of the wood on which she grounds the otherwise floating planes brings cohesion to the paintings that paper would not have. With Dani’s paintings, the wood is not simply an alternative to paper, a random exchange of ground, but an integral addition to her exploration of planes.

The first image is more minimalist in the exploration of space, as the singular white plane floats independently from any sort of ground. The borders of the quadrilateral glow, highlighting shape over perspective. Here, Dani explores the differences between shape and plane. Does this piece represent a white parallelogram, or does it begin to recede, creating depth? I think the artist’s use of transparent paints to convey planes of light, as in the second painting, is incredibly successful. As the blue fades into the white ground, it truly begins to embody the qualities of light. There is a lot of room for further exploration of these themes, as Dani moves to creating more full, realized spaces.

-Hannah Shepherd