Dana Catona

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

Biography

Dana Catona (*1967 in Timișoara, Romania), (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:

Process

Dana Catona works through the gestures of the 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 archaeology, 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

2025 - solo exhibition, Unidentified objects, Galateea Gallery, Bucharest, Romania^[1]
2023 - solo exhibition, In a dream my dog was a fish, Galateea Gallery, Bucharest, Romania^[2]
2022 - solo exhibition, HOM/M/ES, Galleria 28 Timișoara^[3]

2.Selected group exhibitions

2026 - group exhibition, 6.Internationaler Keramikpreis Siegburg, Germany
2025 - group exhibition, Meditteraneo, XXXII Contemporan Ceramic Art Competition, Grottaglie, Italy /
2024 - group exhibition, UAUSS 13th Exhibition International Avanos Applied Ceramics Sypmposium, Nevșehir Haci Bektaș Veli University Nevșehir, Turkey^[4]
2024 - group exhibition, Vertebrae Mundi, AnnArt Gallery, Bucharest, Romania^[5]
2023 - group exhibition, Chronic Desire, Timișoara Garrison Command, Timisoara, Romania^[6]
2023 - group exhibition, Virus Diary, Atelierele Malmaison, SAC Malmaison, Bucharest, Romania
2023 - group exhibition, Mirabilis Hortus National Exhibition, Gallery 9, Brașov, Romania
2023 - group exhibition, Nature Expanded, Meta Spațiu, Timisoara, Romania^[7]
2023 - group exhibition, Homo Homini Dulcis Est, Contemporary Space, Bucharest
2022 - group exhibition, In heaven and on earth, Scemtovici & Benowitz Gallery, Bucharest, Romania^[8]
2022 - group exhibition, Virus Diary, Romanian Cultural Institute Vienna, Austria^[9]
2022 - group exhibition, Flowers and people, Homo homini flos est, Contemporary Hair Space & Galeria 1001 Arte, Bucharest^[10]
2022 - group exhibition, Virus Diary, B5 Studio, Targu Mures, Romania^[11]
2020 - group exhibition, #Contactless, Art Wall, Galeria Galateca, Bucharest, Romania^[12]

3.Art biennales, museum retrospectives, comprehensive retrospective exhibitions, art fairs

2022 - art biennial, International Miniature Biennale, Faculty of Arts and Design Timișoara, Romania

Artistic Residencies, Art Researches, Collaborations, Art Projects

NA

Selected works

Unidentified objects, 37 x 37 x 6 cm, hand-modelled stoneware and porcelain, Dana Catona 2024, photography by Dana Catona - (c) Dana Catona 2024
Unidentified objects, 25 x 21 x 16 cm, hand-modelled stoneware, Dana Catona 2024, photography by Dana Catona - (c) Dana Catona 2024
Unidentified objects, 21 x 30 x 5 cm, hand-modelled stoneware with wire insertion, Dana Catona 2024, photography by Dana Catona - (c) Dana Catona 2024
Unidentified objects, 42 x 42 x 19 cm, hand-modelled stoneware and porcelain, Dana Catona 20254, photography by Dana Catona - (c) Dana Catona 2024

Exhibition views

View from exhibition, works by Dana Catona, 2024 (c) Daliana Iacobescu 2024
View from exhibition, work by Dana Catona, (c) Daliana Iacobescu
View from exhibition, work by Dana Catona, (c) Daliana Iacobescu
View from exhibition, work by Dana Catona, (c) Dana Catona
View from exhibition, work by Dana Catona, (c) Dana Catona

Publications

1.Published books

NA

2.Published articles in journals & magazines

2024, Art and Design Notebooks no. 12, U.A.P. Timișoara publication, (Ceramics and sustainability)
2023, Art and Design Notebooks no. 11, U.A.P. publication, Timișoara, Romania (Ceramics at the Confluence of Fragment and Whole)
2022, Art and Design Notebooks no. 10, U.A.P. publication, Timișoara, Romania (Ephemeral Hypostases of Contemporary Ceramics),
2021, Art and Design Notebooks no. 9, U.A.P. Timișoara publication, Romania (Ceramic and Textile Artistic Object – a Meeting of Media of Expression)
2019, Arta Magazine no 34-35, Bucharest publication, Romania (Epidermă şi miez. Ipostaze ale corporalităţii în arta media din România),
2016, Acoustic Space, Open Fields, Arts and Science Research Practices in the Network Society, Volume nr. 15, (Human Body Related Works in Performance, Video and New Media - from the `60s to the present in Romania), ed. Rasa Smite, Riga, Letonia

Curating activity (Artist as curator)

2016 Curatored exhibitions: etNOetNOetNO, Salon Vega, Theresien Bastei Timișoara, Romania (group exhibition, curated together with Ulrike Ettinger), Salon Vega, Timişoara, Romania
2019 - current, Initiator of the PEND project, an ongoing interactive project developed together with students at the Faculty of Arts and Design, Timișoara, Romania

Catalogues

2024, Women in Design (artists compendium), Design Talks, Faculty of Arts and Design,

Press

Orizonturi Culturale magazine, article^[13]
Orizzonti Culturali, italian magazine^[14]
Modernism online magazine, article^[15]
Curatorial.ro online magazine^[16]
Book Agency, article^[17]
Modernism online magazine, article^[18]
Arta Magazine, article^[19]
Arta Magazine 2023, #62-63, O Istorie a lumii, text by Maria Zintz, ISBN 0004-3354

Gallery Representation

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

Social Media Links

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danacanapana

Hashtags

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

calligraphy
minimalism
organic
poetry

Compatible and inspirational artists:

(artist-mentioned reference list)
NA

[1] ttps://www.galateeagallery.com/unidentified-objects---dana-catona.html

[2] ttps://www.galateeagallery.com/in-my-dream-my-dog-was-a-fish.html

[3] ttps://propagarta.ro/imagini-video/expozitia-danei-catona-de-la-galeria-28-din-timisoara/

[4] ttps://www.uvt.ro/blog/xiiith-international-avanos-applied-ceramics-symposium/

[5] ttps://www.annartgallery.ro/en/exhibition/vertebraemundi

[6] ttps://www.e-flux.com/announcements/516909/chronic-desire-sete-cronic

[7] ttps://www.facebook.com/events/593204669265227/

[8] ttps://empowerartists.org/en/experiences/in-heaven-and-on-earth-group-exhibition-marking-the-opening-of-the-scemtovici-benowicz-gallery/

[9] ttps://www.erstestiftung.org/en/events/virus-diary/

[10] ttps://empowerartists.org/en/experiences/art-exhibition-flowers-and-people/

[11] ttps://arteast.ro/art_event/virus-diary/

[12] ttps://www.galateca.ro/contactless-art-wall/contactless-art-wall2/dana-catona.html

[13] ttp://www.orizonturiculturale.ro/ro_evenimente_Expozitie-Accademia-di-Romania-2021.html

[14] ttps://www.orizzonticulturali.it/it_eventi_Mostra-Accademia-di-Romania-2021.html

[15] ttps://www.modernism.ro/2014/04/30/salonul-mic-bucuresti-smb8-2/

[16] ttps://curatorial.ro/arta/salonul-anual-al-artelor-vizuale-timisoara-editia-95/

[17] ttps://www.agentiadecarte.ro/2019/12/salonul-anual-al-artelor-vizuale-de-la-timisoara.html

[18] ttps://www.modernism.ro/2025/02/27/salonul-premiatilor-uniunii-artistilor-plastici-filiala-timisoara-editia-a-xiii-a/

[19] ttps://revistaarta.ro/ro/scena-timisoreana-si-legaturile-sale-cu-directiile-internationale-ale-cercetarii-artistice/

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Dana Catona

Contents

Dana Catona

Biography

Artistic disciplines:

Process

Notable themes

Works in collections and public recognition

Selected exhibitions

1.Selected solo exhibitions

2.Selected group exhibitions

3.Art biennales, museum retrospectives, comprehensive retrospective exhibitions, art fairs

Artistic Residencies, Art Researches, Collaborations, Art Projects

Selected works

Exhibition views

Publications

1.Published books

2.Published articles in journals & magazines

Curating activity (Artist as curator)

Catalogues

Press

Gallery Representation

Social Media Links

Hashtags

Compatible and inspirational artists:

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