photo courtesy of Elman Studio
Danni O’Brien (they/she), b. 1992 in Virginia, is a queer, interdisciplinary artist. Through scavenging and collecting, O’Brien assembles a reservoir of images, objects, and material from which to concoct enigmatic assemblages. In the studio, they cycle through continuous acts of deconstruction and reconstruction, and employ assemblage, ceramic handbuilding, paper making, casting, CNC routing, and woodworking, to concoct amalgamated sculptures and reliefs. O’Brien exhibits these works at venues such as The Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, Asya Geisberg Gallery, Pazo Fine Art, Tephra Institute for Contemporary Art, and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. They have been awarded residencies with PLOP, The Wassaic Project, Art Farm, Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency, Baltimore Clayworks, and Stove Works, among others. O'Brien received the 2024 Individual Artist Grant from the Maryland State Arts Council and of the 2025 Trawick Prize. She recently completed residencies with the Byrdcliffe Colony and Vermont Studio Center, and is looking forward to a residency and culminating solo exhibition with Stove Works in April 2026.