Dana Catona: Difference between revisions

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Dana Catona

"Dana Catona - Artist Portrait" / (c) Dana Catona, 2024

Biography

Dana Catona (*19.. in ..., RO), (she/her), visual artist and poetry writer, of Romanian ethnical background, grew up in Romania, a graduate of Academy of Visual Arts from Cluj-Napoca. Currently senior lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Design, West University of Timisoara. She is concerned with the connections between the visual and the literary medium and the new paradigms of contemporary ceramics.

A self-portrait as a princess and my dog, an image which is on the cover of my Tic Tac poetry book, scanned imaged, Dana Catona 2024 - (c) Dana Catona, 2024

Artistic disciplines:

Ceramics
Textile art

Process

Dana Catona works through the gestures of my hands, most often using stoneware or porcelain clay. The forms emerge directly from manual contact with the material, shaped through the pressure of the palms, the rhythm of the fingers, and the gradual accumulation of small movements. Repetition plays an important role in this process, as gestures are reiterated and slightly transformed, allowing the form to develop organically. Rather than constructing the object through rigid planning, she follows the resistance and responsiveness of the clay itself.

Notable themes

Recurring theme in Dana Catona's works is fragility, life and death, childhood memory and childhood feelings. Dana Catona predilection for a certain theme is concentrated towards symbolic forms associated with archeology, recurring image of the house, letters or the written word seen as a literary but also visual element. In the ceramic works, the preoccupation with small structures and objects is the result of attention to fragility seen as an attribute of vulnerability and to the delicacy of miniature dimensions. There is a preference for minimalism and the specific expressiveness of the small gestures from which the works were derived, but also for a personal space, which she associates with dimensions that can be fully manipulated just by moving the palms. References to the natural world are simultaneously present and absent. While the forms may evoke organic structures or fragments of growth, their representational dimension is intentionally open and largely completed through the viewer’s perception.

Works in collections and public recognition

exhibited nationally and internationally, at biennials and art galleries.
works in private collections (Germany, Great Britain).

Selected exhibitions

1.Selected solo exhibitions

2020 - solo exhibition, Tables, Epicentru Gallery, Constanța, Romania^[1]
2020 - solo exhibition, QUEERO - Queer Romanian Womxn, Brașov, Romania

2.Selected group exhibitions

2025 - group exhibition, ‘Lost & Found’, LA Center for Photography, USA
2023 - group exhibition, ‘See us!’, Romania
2023 - group exhibition, ‘Queer Bodies’, Transylvania Queer Art, Cluj Napoca, Romania^[2]
2023 - group exhibition, ‘Tabachera cu Scorpion’, Timișoara, Romania^[3]
2023 - group exhibition, ‘Women with a camera’, Casa Presei Libere, Bucharest, Romania
2022 - group exhibition, ‘WE ARE HERE’, Identity Education, Timișoara, Romania
2022 - group exhibition, ‘WE ARE HERE’/POLAR RAINBOW, ArtHub, Bucharest, Romania
2020 - group exhibition, ‘QUEERO’, Indecis Art Space, Timișoara, Romania
2018 - group exhibition, 'Home is Where', Rezidența BRD / Scena9, Bucharest, Romania^[4]
2018 - group exhibition, 'Reforma Photo Days', Bucharest, Romania^[5]
2016 - group exhibition, 'In/Out', Transylvania Photography Festival, Romania
2016 - group exhibition, 'Human All Too Human', NYU Kimmel Galleries, NY, USA
2016 - group exhibition, 'Home', Granada, Spain
2015 - group exhibition, 'I/Thou', NYU Kimmel Galleries, NY, USA
2015 - group exhibition, 'That Used To Be Us', Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, USA
2015 - group exhibition, 'Four of Hearts', Ground Floor Gallery, NY
2014 - group exhibition, 'Queering the self', sponsored by AMEX and Estee Lauder, Emmanuel Fremin Gallery, NY, USA
2016 - group exhibition, 'Vacancy', NYU Kimmel Galleries, NY, USA^[6]

3.Biennials, museum retrospectives, comprehensive retrospective exhibitions

NA

Artistic Residencies, Art Researches, Collaborations, Art Projects

2024, Photography workshop, ‘Queer Joy’ collaboration with the BDSM community, co-instructor with her life partner, Ioana Pop, Bucharest, Romania
2023, Photography workshop, ‘Queer Joy in Bucharest’, co-instructor with her life partner Ioana Pop, Bucharest, Romania
2023, Photography workshop, collaboration with Identity Education non profit, leading several workshops on Queer Joy^[7]
2022, Photography workshop, ‘Queer Joy’, guest artist/ instructor, collaboration with Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA
2021, Photography workshop, ‘Queer Joy’, guest instructor, collaboration with Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA
2021, Photography workshop, ‘Joy in the Visual Arts’, instructor, collaboration with Casa Tranzit, Cluj, Romania
2021, Photography workshop, ‘Queer Joy’, guest instructor, collaboration with Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
2021, Artist talk, TEDX speaker - TEDx Zorilor, Cluj Napoca, Romania
2020, Artist talk, Romanian Cultural Institute, Women Voices in North America, online venue, NY, USA
2018, Artist talk, Ultraviolet TV show, in conversation with Alida Mocanu, Bucharest, Romania
2018, Artist talk, SMART Radio, in conversation with Veronica Soare, Bucharest, Romania
2017, Artist talk, Radio Guerilla, ROZ, in conversation with Carla Maria Teaha, Bucharest, Romania
2017, Artist talk, FOR REAL podcast, in conversation with Andreea Vrabie, Bucharest, Romania
2017, Artist talk, On intersectional feminism, Apollo Theater, Bucharest, Romania
2017, Artist talk, DOR live, WOMAN photography series, Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Bucharest, Romania
2016, Artist talk, Creative Mornings, ON LOVE, Cinema Elvire Popesco, Bucharest, Romania
2014-ongoing - BE KIND FOR REAL fundraising for common good, various issues (queer refugees, women, artists, domestic violence, etc.)

Selected works

"My wife - Good news", from the Good News series, the artist partner in the artist NY driven taxi, from the Good News series, medium format film, 60x70 cm, 2021, photography by Daniela Groza - (c) Daniela Groza 2021
"Our first image together", from the Good News series, medium format film, 60x70 cm, 2021 - (c) Daniela Groza & Ioana Pop 2021
"Untitled", from the For Hire series, medium format film, 60x70 cm, 2025 - (c) Daniela Groza 2025
"Untitled", from the For Hire series, medium format film, 60x70 cm, 2025 - (c) Daniela Groza 2025
"Untitled", from the For Hire series, medium format film, 60x70 cm, 2025 - (c) Daniela Groza 2025

Exhibition views

View from ‘Tabachera cu Scorpion’ group exhibition, Work by Daniela Groza, 2023, Timișoara, Romania (c) Identity Education, 2023

Publications

1.Published books

NA

2.Published articles in journals & magazines

2022, ‘At the port’, article, CUTRA, Romania^[8]
2021, 'A letter to my young self', article, The Daring, USA^[9]
2020, ‘Donuts and a ride in a pandemic New York’, published interview, Scena9, Romania^[10]
2020, ‘Affective’, article, CUTRA, Romania
2017, 'Those who leave and those who remain', article, Decât O Revistă, Romania^[11]
2016, 'Where I Come From', article, Decât O Revistă, Romania^[12]

Curating activity (Artist as curator)

NA

Catalogues

NA

Press

2024, Romanian Contemporary Photography INFLUX – Urban Gardens On Love, article, ^[13]
2020, 'On driving a taxi in New York during the pandemic', published interview, by Ioana Ulmeanu, Elle Magazine, Romania^[14]
2018 - Scena 9, 2018. „Daniela Groza - The other family‘‘ by Andra Matzal^[15]
2018, 'Daniela Groza: the story of a kind person for real', published interview, Elle Magazine, Romania^[16]
2017, 'Daniela Groza: the story of a kind person for real', published interview, iQuads ro^[17]

Gallery Representation

NA
For further commercial and non-commercial inquiries, feel free to contact NPK

Social Media Links

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daniela.groza.pop
Website: http://www.danielagroza.com/ http://www.danielagroza.com/]

Hashtags

(artistic practices, currents, techniques, themes - applicable hashtags for this artist)

documentary
East-West relations
feminism
humor
intersectional identity
manifesto
photography
queer art, queer identity, queering

Compatible and inspirational artists:

(artist-mentioned reference list)
("for the way they have laid down the foundations for self-representation, queer and beyond." -artist note)

[1] ttps://www.instagram.com/p/CGxuWQLpSrL/

[2] ttps://www.instagram.com/p/CtZnuv6Iohv/?img_index=1

[3] ttps://identity.education/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/queer-legacy-ro_digital.pdf

[4] ttps://cdfd.ro/despre-noi/

[5] ttps://www.creart.ro/photo-festival-reforma-photo-days-1/

[6] ttps://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2014/september/nyus-kimmel-galleries-presents-vacancy-through-november-30th.html

[7] ttps://www.facebook.com/identity.education/photos/a.2174065612808438/3280966602118328/?_rdr

[8] ttps://cutra.ro/la-liman-despre-fericire-migratie-cautare/

[9] ttps://www.thedaring.co/2021/02/the-miracle-of-delight-a-letter-to-my-younger-self/

[10] ttps://www.scena9.ro/article/pandemie-covid-new-york-taxi

[11] ttps://www.dor.ro/cei-care-pleaca-si-cei-care-raman-dor-28/

[12] ttps://www.dor.ro/de-aici-sunt-integral-din-dor-20/

[13] ttps://www.photographyinflux.ro/the-garden-of-eden-joy-paradise-love-daniela-groza-ioana-groza-pop-lucian-bran/

[14] ttps://www.elle.ro/lifestyle/daniela-groza-despre-coronavirus-panica-si-speranta-la-new-york-717611

[15] ttps://www.scena9.ro/article/fotografie-documentara-daniela-groza-familii-lgbt

[16] ttps://www.elle.ro/people/daniela-groza-povestea-unui-om-care-e-bun-pe-bune-612699

[17] ttps://www.iqads.ro/articol/39489/daniela-groza-fotograf-documentar-sofer-uber-in-new-york-om-bun-cu-adevarat

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 '''Dana Catona''' (*19.. in ..., RO), (she/her), visual [[Artists|artist]] and poetry writer, of Romanian ethnical background, grew up in [[Romania]], a graduate of Academy of Visual Arts from Cluj-Napoca. Currently senior lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Design, West University of Timisoara. She is concerned with the connections between the visual and the literary medium and the new paradigms of contemporary ceramics.
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-[[File:ArtistPersonal-DanaCatona.jpg|thumb|A self-portrait as a princess and my dog, an image which is on the cover of my Tic Tac  poetry book, scanned imaged, Dana Catona 2026 - (c) Dana Catona, 2024]]
+[[File:ArtistPersonal_DanaCatona.jpg|thumb|A self-portrait as a princess and my dog, an image which is on the cover of my Tic Tac  poetry book, scanned imaged, Dana Catona 2024 - (c) Dana Catona, 2024]]
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