Reed Danziger: Arabesque

If one conceives of Modernism as the quest to define heraldic, recognizable languages of personal creation, then the arabesque proposes an entirely contrary, more communal prospect. As a form passed from culture to culture, undergoing mutation in successive phases, it becomes a most potent trope of deviation. It emerges as a “duplicity” embodying the immanence of forgotten possibility.

– Dr. David Moos, Theories of the Decorative: Abstraction and Ornament in Contemporary Painting

Reed Danziger creates large-scale paintings on paper with extraordinary spatial and emotional depth. Her intricate layers of patterns are based on anonymous designs that span history, geography, and culture. For inspiration, she draws from such diverse sources as American folk art, 18th-century European rococo, Persian and Turkish designs, and Chinese ornamentation.

In this new series of work, Danziger’s intense patterning and repetition results in tightly condensed layers of images that push and pull at one another and vie for our attention. As she builds each layer, Danziger interweaves stenciled patterns with free-hand drawing. Her motifs evolve just as the decorative patterns of past cultures and centuries developed and influenced one another.

Danziger’s work aligns itself with a distinct trend in contemporary art. A similar fascination with pattern and decoration permeates the work of such artists as Philip Taaffe, Ross Bleckner, Beatriz Milhazes, Lari Pittman, Fabiàn Marcaccio, and Jim Hodges.

Danziger was born in Berkeley, California and resides in San Francisco. She received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1995.