Exhibition:
Sarah Danays: Golden Bough

Opening Reception: Saturday April 5, 2014 from 5-8pm
in conjunction with MOPLA
Live DJ Esteban Lopez | Adroit Sound & Entertainment
http://www.adroitsoundent.com/

ROBERT BERMAN GALLERY presents ‘Golden Bough’, an exhibition of sculpture and photography by British artist Sarah Danays in conjunction with Month of Photography Los Angeles and BritWeek.

Danaysʼ work references history, from Old Master paintings to sacred Asian sculpture and the Surrealists. She channels the past in both subject and execution. Since 2007 she has assembled fragmented antiquities, previously separated by different countries, cultures, centuries and religions, intermingling them with curiosities from nature and her own hand-tooled stone carvings of human body parts to create a unique fusion of energies and symbols. In ‘Golden Bough‘ Danays turns her focus to European mythologies and objects; coupling them with her own alabaster and marble sculptures.

As counter to the ancient techniques of the carved work, Danays’ uses the most advanced photography equipment and methods to achieve her limited edition photographs - images as arresting at 3 inches as at 30 feet. Using a16 shot process, she captures her carvings and objects in meticulous detail. Photography frees her to play, not only with scale and synergies, but also with philosophical ideas encompassing society’s perception of, and relationship with, reality. The long journey to create each C-type print, from hand carving to c21 image-making, starts with Plato’s Theory of Forms and ends with Baudrillard’s Hyperreality.

“Danays effects such radical juxtaposition with such remarkable craft.” Peter Frank

Danays was shortlisted in 2008’s Le Prix de la Sculpture Noilly Prat as one of Britain's top five emerging sculptors. She trained in Stone Carving for Contemporary Sculptors at City & Guilds,London; holds an MA from Goldsmith University’s Department of Art, London and a Joint Honors Degree in Fine Art and Art History from Camberwell (UAL). Her work is in public and private collections in Europe, the US and Australia. She lives in Los Angeles, and works between her Venice Beach studio, LA; Italy and the UK.
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Sarah Danays, selected quotes and collections

“Hugely ambitious and lyrical, with a beautiful use of space”
Grace, 2007 shortlisted Danays as one of the UK’s top five emerging sculptors, Le Prix de la Sculpture Noilly Prat, 2008
-Rachel Campbell-Johnston - Chief Art Critic, The Times Newspaper, London
Le Prix de la Sculpture Noilly Prat Judging Panelist, 2008

“Danays effects such radical juxtaposition with such remarkable craft”
-Peter Frank, Art Critic, Los Angeles

“More than anything Sarah Danays work impresses me because of its ability to gain sweeping significance through a meticulous care for detail applied to idiosyncratic particulars”
-Dr Ken Arnold, Head of Public Programs, Wellcome Trust, London

“Danays has a great ability to see beyond normal physical levels on items she works with, and combines objects from different cultures and from nature making them a unique fusion of energies.”
-Christopher Cavey FGA & Associates, Gemologist, London

“Nearly twenty years ago I bought a piece from Sarah Danays from the Adam gallery in London. While it is now defunct her work – Billy remains in my collection and sadly while a bit moth eaten – it still retains its punch. The work part of a show called Child Crime features a large photo of a 1950’s British lad with a slingshot. He wears a grey sweater that Danays had reproduced and which stands near by the image. It is a strong work that reflects how we see children and violence and with the memory of Sandy Hook so fresh in our minds it is more relevant than ever.”
-Michael Petry, American-born multi media artist and Director of MOCA, London

“We have been admirers of Sarah Danays' work since we met in 1994 and seen it develop from the most exquisite stitch through the juxtaposition of precious found objects to her latest project, carving marble and alabaster. There is an obsession with the perfection of process which, together with her discerning eye and wit, results in work that is always surprising, emotionally resonant and visually satisfying. Danays has a brilliant and seductive mind, guaranteed to unsettle as much as it fascinates.”
-Admiral Lord West and The Lady West, London