Biography
Dana Sherwood is a New York based artist whose work explores contact between human and non-human animals in order to understand culture and behavior. Her sculptures, video works, and watercolors portray ritualized feedings Sherwood performs for animals who live among or at the borders of human populations. She experiments night after night to serve a population of animals with decadent cakes, sculpted gelatin molds, and rare meats that they will enjoy, capturing their indulgence on film and making drawings of the encounters. The animals play a complex role as subjects and collaborators, asserting their visibility and desires even as Sherwood’s work theorizes about the Anthropocene, the current geological epoch in which human activity has caused substantial, irreversible damage to the natural world.
Since receiving a BFA from the University of Maine in 2004 Sherwood has exhibited throughout The Americas and Europe including solo exhibitions at Nagle-Draxler Reiseburogalerie (Cologne), Denny Dimin Gallery (New York) and at Kepler Art-Conseil (Paris, 2017). Her work has also been shown at The Fellbach Sculpture Triennial(Germany), Kunsthal Aarhus, The Palais des Beaux Arts Paris, Marian Boesky Gallery, Mixed Greens Gallery, Socrates Sculpture Park, Flux Factory, The Biennial of Western New York, Prospect 2: New Orleans, Scotia Bank Nuit Blanche(Toronto), The CCBB(Brazil), dOCUMENTA 13, as well as many other venues worldwide.
Artist Statement
"My work consists of two practices: the fieldwork where I am waiting, watching, filming and responding to the animals, and the studio where I edit the videos and make drawings and sculptures. I spend a great deal of my studio time drawing and painting, creating scenes taken directly from the videos, or sometimes scenes I imagined or wished would take place. I have found that over the years making this work that as much as I have learned about the animals I am watching, these reflections on nature have also affected the way that I approach drawing, painting, art making and life in general.
A consistent theme in my work is control. Specifically, the control of nature by mankind and our desire to tame it for our own purposes. But nature is unpredictable and our ingrained tendency to superimpose human traits on non human animals underscores this point. As Wittgenstein once said, “If a lion could talk we would not understand him.” My interpretation of this statement is exactly that, all living creatures have their own subjectivities and perceptions of the world that colors the way they view and interact within it. We love nature and we want it to flourish and be accessible in our daily lives, but the moment it starts to encroach on our territory, and subvert our perceived control, we reject it and try to dominate it."
Recent Shows and/or Exhibitions
2025
Dana Sherwood: ANIMAL RITES, Hartnett Gallery, University of Rochester, New York
Forthcoming Solo Exhibition Dana Sherwood, Geary Contemporary, New York
Forthcoming Exhibition: Esoteric: Myth and Science in Naples, The Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples, Italy
Forthcoming Exhibition : Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, The Armour-Steiner Octagon House, New York
Behind the Bedroom Door, James Cohan Gallery, New York
Radical Reinvention – Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture, New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts
On/Off – Life, Light, Darkness, Museum Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg, Germany
2024
Dana Sherwood: Mythologies, Heike Strelow Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany
Wonderland, Aicon Gallery, New York
Histoire Naturelle, Chez Max et Dorothea, Los Angeles
From Art Colony to Connecticut Collection: Highlights from the Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut
Home Again, Newfields Sculpture Park, Indianapolis
UPSTATE ART WEEKEND, A Net for String, Mother Gallery, Beacon, New York
2023
Nourish, The Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington Delaware
Diurnal/Nocturnal, Leroy Neiman Center, Columbia University, NY
Petrichor, Marrow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Renew, Upstate Diary + Toast, Hudson, NY
Das Weiblich, Heike Strelow Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany
Feast, Standard Space, Connecticut
What’s for Supper? What’s a Meal? Northern Illinois University Art Museum
2022
Dana Sherwood, Animal Appetites and Other Encounters in Wildness, The Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme CT
The Cake Eaters, Denny Gallery, NY, NY
Some Kind of Tea Party or Thereabouts in the Realm of Madness, UMass Dartmouth Star Store Gallery
The Searchers, High Desert Test Sites, CA
Fruiting Bodies, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, NY, NY
Signing in Unison, The Brooklyn Rail, Industry City, Brooklyn, NY
Celebrate, GAA Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2021
Crossing the Wild Line, The Barns Art Center, Fishkill, NY
Din Din, Flux Factory, Queens, NY (forthcoming)
Chromatic Vigils/Low Tides, Hudson Opera House, Hudson, NY
Inner World - Outer World, Visions West Contemporary, Denver, CO
Feedback, The School, Jack Shaiman Gallery, Kinderhook, NY
Cross Pollination, Thomas ColeNational Historic Site, Catskills, NY
Tromso International Film Festival, KURANT Gallaery, Tromso, Norway
2020
Digestive Systems. Pace University Art Gallery. NY, New York
The Searchers. High Desert Test Sites, California
Cross Pollination. The Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, NY
Feedback. Jack Shainman Gallery : The School. Kinderhook, NY
Tales of the City. Videotage. Hong Kong
Dana Sherwood is a New York based artist whose work explores contact between human and non-human animals in order to understand culture and behavior. Her sculptures, video works, and watercolors portray ritualized feedings Sherwood performs for animals who live among or at the borders of human populations. She experiments night after night to serve a population of animals with decadent cakes, sculpted gelatin molds, and rare meats that they will enjoy, capturing their indulgence on film and making drawings of the encounters. The animals play a complex role as subjects and collaborators, asserting their visibility and desires even as Sherwood’s work theorizes about the Anthropocene, the current geological epoch in which human activity has caused substantial, irreversible damage to the natural world.
Since receiving a BFA from the University of Maine in 2004 Sherwood has exhibited throughout The Americas and Europe including solo exhibitions at Nagle-Draxler Reiseburogalerie (Cologne), Denny Dimin Gallery (New York) and at Kepler Art-Conseil (Paris, 2017). Her work has also been shown at The Fellbach Sculpture Triennial(Germany), Kunsthal Aarhus, The Palais des Beaux Arts Paris, Marian Boesky Gallery, Mixed Greens Gallery, Socrates Sculpture Park, Flux Factory, The Biennial of Western New York, Prospect 2: New Orleans, Scotia Bank Nuit Blanche(Toronto), The CCBB(Brazil), dOCUMENTA 13, as well as many other venues worldwide.
Artist Statement
"My work consists of two practices: the fieldwork where I am waiting, watching, filming and responding to the animals, and the studio where I edit the videos and make drawings and sculptures. I spend a great deal of my studio time drawing and painting, creating scenes taken directly from the videos, or sometimes scenes I imagined or wished would take place. I have found that over the years making this work that as much as I have learned about the animals I am watching, these reflections on nature have also affected the way that I approach drawing, painting, art making and life in general.
A consistent theme in my work is control. Specifically, the control of nature by mankind and our desire to tame it for our own purposes. But nature is unpredictable and our ingrained tendency to superimpose human traits on non human animals underscores this point. As Wittgenstein once said, “If a lion could talk we would not understand him.” My interpretation of this statement is exactly that, all living creatures have their own subjectivities and perceptions of the world that colors the way they view and interact within it. We love nature and we want it to flourish and be accessible in our daily lives, but the moment it starts to encroach on our territory, and subvert our perceived control, we reject it and try to dominate it."
Recent Shows and/or Exhibitions
2025
Dana Sherwood: ANIMAL RITES, Hartnett Gallery, University of Rochester, New York
Forthcoming Solo Exhibition Dana Sherwood, Geary Contemporary, New York
Forthcoming Exhibition: Esoteric: Myth and Science in Naples, The Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples, Italy
Forthcoming Exhibition : Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, The Armour-Steiner Octagon House, New York
Behind the Bedroom Door, James Cohan Gallery, New York
Radical Reinvention – Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture, New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts
On/Off – Life, Light, Darkness, Museum Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg, Germany
2024
Dana Sherwood: Mythologies, Heike Strelow Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany
Wonderland, Aicon Gallery, New York
Histoire Naturelle, Chez Max et Dorothea, Los Angeles
From Art Colony to Connecticut Collection: Highlights from the Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut
Home Again, Newfields Sculpture Park, Indianapolis
UPSTATE ART WEEKEND, A Net for String, Mother Gallery, Beacon, New York
2023
Nourish, The Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington Delaware
Diurnal/Nocturnal, Leroy Neiman Center, Columbia University, NY
Petrichor, Marrow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Renew, Upstate Diary + Toast, Hudson, NY
Das Weiblich, Heike Strelow Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany
Feast, Standard Space, Connecticut
What’s for Supper? What’s a Meal? Northern Illinois University Art Museum
2022
Dana Sherwood, Animal Appetites and Other Encounters in Wildness, The Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme CT
The Cake Eaters, Denny Gallery, NY, NY
Some Kind of Tea Party or Thereabouts in the Realm of Madness, UMass Dartmouth Star Store Gallery
The Searchers, High Desert Test Sites, CA
Fruiting Bodies, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, NY, NY
Signing in Unison, The Brooklyn Rail, Industry City, Brooklyn, NY
Celebrate, GAA Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2021
Crossing the Wild Line, The Barns Art Center, Fishkill, NY
Din Din, Flux Factory, Queens, NY (forthcoming)
Chromatic Vigils/Low Tides, Hudson Opera House, Hudson, NY
Inner World - Outer World, Visions West Contemporary, Denver, CO
Feedback, The School, Jack Shaiman Gallery, Kinderhook, NY
Cross Pollination, Thomas ColeNational Historic Site, Catskills, NY
Tromso International Film Festival, KURANT Gallaery, Tromso, Norway
2020
Digestive Systems. Pace University Art Gallery. NY, New York
The Searchers. High Desert Test Sites, California
Cross Pollination. The Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, NY
Feedback. Jack Shainman Gallery : The School. Kinderhook, NY
Tales of the City. Videotage. Hong Kong