Daniels shares mind and soul through art

Oct 31

Oct 31 Daniels shares mind and soul through art

Director of the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery for 23 years, Kathleen Daniels returns to show the community who she is through curated art from her personal collection in an exhibition titled Drawing from a Collection. The art displayed covers many different mediums: photographs, paintings, ceramics, and more. Daniels’s art collection has been growing for the past 5 decades. The curation contains 65 art pieces from 40 artists, 28 of them being women.

Daniels said in her curator statement that it isn’t surprising over half of the artists exhibited are women, “given the gallery’s mission to maintain a powerful, women-centered presence in the local visual arts community.

Daniels graduated from St. Catherine University with her Bachelors in Studio Arts and Education in 1973. From there, she went on to get her masters in art history in 1991 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In her career, Daniels has curated many art displays and led art tours internationally. In 1993, she stepped into the role of curator and director of the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery.

Since retiring in 2016, Daniels still has a presence in the art world. She has curated more exhibitions and has been juried into multiple art exhibitions.

Drawing from a Collection features two main motifs: figure and nature. These motifs are displayed by all of the different mediums in the exhibition.

“The figure is suggested, but not present,” Daniels writes in her curators statement. “In Ipek Duben’s Sherife Series, where three dresses hold the shape of the figure, though the figure is absent.”

The exhibition was open in the west gallery from Sept. 11 through Oct. 23. Students as well as outside community members were able to come in and view the collection.

“I think it’s so cool that someone can show their personality through artwork. It says more about a person than words can,” Aurora Long ‘21 (Psychology) said.

Daniels brought her personality and life experience to campus through years of curated art. The community continues to share this experience and express themselves through their own artwork.