EXHIBITION: States of Leisure
States of Leisure
DANA BELL
Friday, March 7, 2025 – Saturday, April 19, 2025
PREVIEW & ARTIST TALK | Thursday, March 6, 2025 [RSVP HERE]
OPENING RECEPTION | Friday, March 7, 2025
Dana Bell, Looking to the Left with Binoculars 1, 2, & 3, 2024
3 Chromogenic prints, 17 x 14 inches each. INQUIRE
Candela Gallery is excited to present States of Leisure, a solo exhibition of new works by Brooklyn-based artist Dana Bell. Through her practice, Bell unifies traditional painting, darkroom techniques, and digitally fabricated objects as she explores the evolving nature of the snapshot—tracing its transformative state from a singular, analog moment to a continually shifting digital artifact.
Bell uses laser-cut plexiglass and cutting-edge 3D rendering techniques to create intricate photographic negatives that challenge traditional methods of reproduction. These custom-made objects, constructed by hand using fabrics, sections of cut lumens, and cyanotype prints, undergo a transformative process that results in a diverse range of photographic prints, including vibrant c-prints, platinum-over-inkjet prints, chrome-toned gelatin silver prints, aristotypes on metal, and chromogenic prints.
Dana Bell, Two Bend Over, Towards Center, 2024. Chromogenic print, 14 x 17 inches. INQUIRE
By making the technological processes behind image creation visible, Bell deconstructs the mysticism of the analog photographic object. Drawing on historical photographic studies, such as Eadward Muybridge’s Animal Locomotion, Bell reimagines movement and materiality through hybrid methods, creating images that explore the interplay between human interaction and technological mediation. Within the exhibition, Bell presents varied expressions of leisure, ranging from quiet moments of enjoyment to a more Victorian-era state of repose—one marked by nervous exhaustion and existential unease in response to the accelerating pace and pressures of modern life—ultimately blurring the lines between work and play.
States of Leisure invites viewers to reconsider photography in the age of hyper-documentation, fostering a reimagined dialogue between technology, materiality, and memory.
For more information, please get in touch with Candela Gallery at info@candelabooks.com.
Dana Bell, Three Stand Point to Left, 2025. Selenium-toned gelatin silver print, 31 x 24 inches. INQUIRE
Dana Bell, Man Tests Swift Instruments 10x24 Armored Egret Binoculars, 2024. Chromogenic print, 17 x 14 inches. INQUIRE
Dana Bell: States of Leisure
ARTIST TALK | THURSDAY, MARCH 6
Doors at 6pm, Talk at 6:30pm
About the Artist
Dana Bell (b. 1974, Detroit) graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit in 2001 and received her MFA at Maine College of Art in 2004, studying with Vito Acconci and Joanne Greenbaum.
She has shown her paintings and choreography at many institutions and galleries, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), The Museum of Art and Design, New York, The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY, The Salvador Allende Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago, Chile, Roulette in Brooklyn, and Pioneer Works in Brooklyn.
Bell's figurative-based work extends from in-person to multi-media, as well as in multiples in print and painting. Bell's muses are color and vernacular photography, where she finds gestures and poses that speak to contemporary issues. Dana currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.