Danielle Lemaire

Background

About Danielle Lemaire

The Collection Resists, Missiemuseum Steyl, Sept 13, 2025 – March 1, 2026 - SOLO, De Geschiedenis Is Mijn Gezelschap, Museum W, 12 April - 20 september 2026 - Shadow Garden, Weaving Museum Geldrop - Kasteel Geldrop, Summer 2027 - SOLO, Drawing Centre Diepenheim, Fall 2027 In my work there is a relationship with nature, its cycles, animism, the contemplative, and magical. My work mostly arises on the basis of research into the special history of a place or person, which I find marking for the here and now in combination with its previous history and my personal connection to it. At the moment my focus leads to the traces of my ancestors in relation to Indonesia. In my presentations small and large drawings as a basis can be combined with film, audio, books, photographs, archival material and occasionally live events. The persons, places and natural elements in my work represent a universal soul, a parallel world, a cosmic connection, a life beyond the known and immediately visible. A vital mirror world that can help us see who we are as human. My approach towards making a work or presentation is grounded on an intensive focus. Time investment is an important and substantial element for the energy that the work contains in the end. Processes develop in an organic way. I delved into the life, work and times of English cult singer Nick Drake and made a melancholic exhibition (solo Stedelijk Museum Breda 2021, Fermynwoods Contemporary Art UK 2019); Project on Lucia Pamela, first woman on the moon (solo Van Abbe Museum Eindhoven 2010); in project Diamonds Are Forever at the Hilvaria Studio's, I returned the first DAF cars to the original, egg-shaped advertising studio in which they were once photographed, in the middle of the woods of Hilvarenbeek, NL (2022-2023) I presented huge drawings on textile and magical projections, reflecting on a fictional story on a lost bride in Indonesia. As part of a group show in a colonial house hosted by Goethe Institute Bandung (2023). Drawing is a source for deepening and depicting vivid narratives; a conscious way to generate energy in a world of decay. Revive what has been lost but still nourishes us spiritually. I can make very large drawings that coincide with the architecture of the presentation space, or small drawings as momentum and intimate conversation with the subject. I regularly work site-specific. Next to drawing I make paintings, photos, films, soundworks, multimedia installations. I publish books, prints, audio works on my own label 'Inner Landscapes'.