Overview

Enter a world of transformation—where imagination takes physical form; where wire, glass, and celu-clay become creatures of wonder; and where an abstract painter evolves into a surreal sculptor guided by her fascination with fantasy and dream imagery.

When Joan Danziger arrived in Washington from New York in 1968, her work merged the surrealist influences of her youth with the era’s growing interest in materials-based practices, collapsing boundaries between craft and fine art.

This emotionally driven yet materially conscious approach not only prefigured the national turn toward nontraditional materials, techniques, and forms, but also stood in sharp contrast to the prevailing allegiance to the formalist ideals of the Washington Color School.

Across the decades, Danziger continues to forge her own independent path. “I have always been drawn to surrealism, symbolism, and magical imagery. My mixed-media sculptures emerge from a deep fascination with metamorphosis, myth, and the thresholds between humans and animals.” In this, her largest exhibition to date, the works affirm her lifelong commitment to making the imaginative visible through the transformative power of material. In Danziger’s hands, that transformation feels nothing short of magical.