“A View from the Easel” – Explore Jessamyn and Sean’s Artistic Practice

Tamarind Exhibitions: Danielle Orchard: Tender Observer
Works from 2019-2022 on view in the Tamarind Gallery, August 23-December 20
Opening reception: Friday, August 23 from 5-7 p.m.
Gallery hours: Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Danielle Orchard: Tender Observer showcases work made by the artist at Tamarind Institute from 2019 to 2022. Each collaboration is marked by subtle shifts in color and nuanced approaches to mark making, reflecting Orchard’s deepening engagement with the medium. During her most recent residency at Tamarind, Orchard’s studio practice focused on using “a variety of lithographic rubbing crayons and pencils,” which emulates the quality of a richly worked charcoal drawing, painting with liquid tusche, as well as “making reductive marks by scratching back into the drawing material” (Tamarind documentation sheet). The absence of color allowed the artist to concentrate on volume and light, employing the sharp contours of cubism while challenging classical notions of the muse. As far back as 1990, Joann Moser notes in her article A Living Tradition: Black-and-White Prints in an Age of Color, Tamarind Paper (Vol. 13), “many artists have consciously resisted the temptation to make prints in color. Instead they have chosen to make prints in black and white, continuing to explore the creative possibilities and expressive subtleties which have distinguished the graphic tradition during many centuries.” It is this kind of exploration that is a hallmark of collaborative printmaking at Tamarind and which is thoughtfully guided by Master Printer/Workshop Manager Valpuri Remling.
Throughout her work, Orchard complicates traditional portrayals of women as passive objects of desire. Her sculpturally-formed figures are often depicted from unexpected angles, unposed and unguarded. Her scenes, domestic and languorous in tone, depict women in repose and continually evoke questions about viewership, voyeurism, and the artistic ownership of the female form. By repositioning the female figure as a contemporary entity, detached from the constraints of the male gaze, Orchard breathes fresh life into the portrayal of women in art.
Orchard holds an MFA from Hunter College and is represented by Perrotin. Recent exhibitions include You Are a Serpent Who’ll Return to the Ocean, Perrotin; Page Turner at Perrotin, A Face for Every Season at Gallery Half Gallery, At the Seams at Perrotin, Pack den Badeanzug ein at Galerie Kornfeld, A Little Louder, Love at Jack Hanley Gallery, Embodiment at D.C. Moore Gallery, and Fauve at Geoffrey Young Gallery. More information about the artist can be found here.
Tamarind Institute, a division of the College of Fine Arts at The University of New Mexico, is a workshop, a gallery, and a center for collaborative printmaking. Tamarind faculty and staff conduct research, train collaborative printers, and produce and publish original artworks with emerging and established artists from a plethora of disciplines. Tamarind Institute’s lithography process represents the alchemy of art, craft, material and synergy between artist and printer, resulting in exquisite hand-pulled impressions.