Artists in residence

Dani McKenzie’s practice stems from an interest in the culture and history of vernacular photography as a private inventory, the ways in which we identify with such photographs, and how these processes of identification might be reassessed through contemporary painting.

Mining through pre-existing images of the past in order to open up new possibilities – new images, new meanings – in the present, the paintings can be seen as instances of instability that are both strange and familiar.

Dani McKenzie graduated from the National Art School in Sydney, Australia in 2016.

Whilst at the NAS she received the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award for both BFA (Honours) and MFA degrees. Dani McKenzie has had several solo exhibitions in Melbourne and in Sydney, is the 2019 recipient of the Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize, received the Nick Waterlow Award in the Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize in 2016, and was awarded the Belle ArtStart Prize in 2015.

She currently lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.

Daniel Pettrow is a Brooklyn based actor, director, and multidisciplinary artist. He is a dual citizen (USA and Italy). He frequently focuses on original and experimental creations while fostering collaborations with artists from different disciplines.

His work centers on the view of the performer as a shaman. He often focuses on the space between: between the real and illusion, between the world of the dead and the living. His creations strive to reveal “things” that may lie deeply buried within ourselves, and thus, to shine a light on sensations collectively shared among us.

Daniel Pettrow is the Director of “Performance and Communication” training for The Heifetz International Music Institute, a unique training conservatory designed to develop the expressive and communicative potential of young artists.

He is a close collaborator with renowned French director Arthur Nauzyciel (Artistic Director TNB Rennes), having performed in Black Battles with Dogs, Roberto Zucco, Julius Caesar, and Splendid’s. Recently, Daniel worked with Italian director Romeo Castellucci, performing in Julius Caesar: Spared Parts.

Blake Daniels (born 1990 in Cincinnati) lives and works in Brooklyn and Johannesburg. A recipient of the Edward L. Ryerson Fellowship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Blake Daniels received a BFA in 2013 and an MFA from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 2017.

Recent solo exhibitions include “A Confession of Rain” in Paris, “Triumph of the Southern Suburbs” at Matthew Brown Gallery in Los Angeles in 2022, and “Tales of Here and Later” at ROOM Gallery in Johannesburg in 2017.

Blake Daniels has also taken part in group shows this year such as “Full and Pure” at the Green Family Art Foundation in Dallas, “The Oyster is Your World” at COMA in Sydney, and “Eye to Eye” at the New York Academy of Art.