bio:
Eleana Daniel was born in Raleigh, North Carolina and now lives and works in Chicago. She holds a BFA with honors in Visual Communication from Columbia College Chicago. After an almost decade-long career in advertising as an art director working for agencies such as Ogilvy and Leo Burnett, she returned to painting in 2019. She received her MFA in Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2024. Eleana’s work has been featured at Co-Prosperity Sphere, Oliva Gallery, The Plan, Woman Made Gallery, Color Club, and most recently at Door County Contemporary art fair where she was chosen as Critic’s Pick by Michelle Grabner. Eleana has also been the curator of mozart house, a series of DIY group art shows, and a volunteer graphic designer for Comfort Station Logan Square.
artist statement:
My work begins with the consideration of a landscape, be it interior or exterior, observed, imagined, or synthetic. The shapes in my paintings are non-representational emblems for states of feeling. My painting practice is where language can be freed. Through painting, I am looking for alternatives. I am trying to sit in-between a binary. Abstraction is important now because it is flexible; it allows for the unnamable, ineffable, and ambiguous. Oil paint is the material that mediates. My work is a negotiation of control and an exercise in trust.
If you are interested in purchasing artwork, please email eleanadaniel@gmail.com or contact Kimberly Oliva at olivagallery@gmail.com to view a price list of available work.