Cecilia Danell (b.1985) is a Swedish artist based in Galway. Her practice is process based, where accumulated research into landscape and the psychology of place is coupled with a strong interest in materiality and making. For the past ten years, Danell has returned to her family farm in Sweden to walk and gather research material for paintings. This experience of being in the landscape, along with the physical process of painting in the studio, results in works that detach themselves from the photographic source material. Danell began this body of work while on residency at Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris in early 2020 and continued through the pandemic. The title ‘I Trust the Quiet’ was chosen to reflect a time of introspection and enforced solitude, where quietness has resulted in a focused engagement with painting, while the depicted winter landscape has come to represent that sense of stillness. The parallel reading of classic sci-fi and speculative fiction novels have also inspired this recent work, as what strikes her about these novels is humanity’s ability to persevere and adapt in adverse circumstances. The human urge to find solace in a primeval landscape grows increasingly stronger amidst the uncertainty of our current condition. Yet wilderness is for the most part a construct and the places she depicts are managed forest landscapes.

Recent exhibitions include: ‘Mise en scène’, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2021), ‘I set a Bait for the Unknown’ (solo), Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin (2020), ‘In a Landscape’ (solo) at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), Dublin (2019), ‘Winter Wanderer’ (solo) at Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin (2019), ‘Futures – Series 3 Episode 2’ at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), Dublin (2018), BEEP Painting Biennial, Swansea, UK (2018), ‘The Last Wilderness’ (solo) at The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon IE (2017) and Galway Arts Centre IE (2017). Residencies include Ballinglen Arts Foundation (November 2021), Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2020) and the Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale, Norway (2016). She was a 2017 recipient of the Arts Council Next Generation Award and has received several Arts Council Bursaries and Project Awards as well as the ESB Keating Award at the 190^th RHA Annual Exhibition (2020), the Wexford Arts Centre Emergence Award (2011) and she is on the current shortlist for the Hennessy Craig Award at the RHA. Her work is in several public collections including the Arts Council, Trinity College, Galway City Council, Wexford County Council, Motala Municipal Council, Sweden and the Office of Public Works as well as private collections in Ireland, UK, Sweden, Canada, France and Norway. Cecilia Danell is represented by Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin.