DANIELLE MUŽINA
FEMME IN THE END TIMES
bruno david gallery
DANIELLE MUŽINA
FEMME IN THE END TIMES
January 28 - March 22, 2025
Bruno David Gallery
7513 Forsyth Boulevard
Saint Louis, Missouri 63105, U.S.A.
info@brunodavidgallery.com www.brunodavidgallery.com
Founder/Director: Bruno L. David
This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition “Femme In The End Times” at Bruno David Gallery.
Editor: Bruno L. David
Catalogue Designer: Angela Griffy
Designer Assistant: Claudia R. David
Printed in USA
All works courtesy of Danielle Mužina and Bruno David Gallery
Photographs by Bruno David Gallery
Cover image: Indelible, (detail) 2019 Oil and Acrylic on board 35 x 47.5 inches
Edition Copyright ©2025 Danielle Muzina and Bruno David Gallery All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of Bruno David Gallery
PROLOGUE
BY BRUNO L. DAVID
CHECKLIST AND IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION BIOGRAPHY
PROLOGUE
BY BRUNO L. DAVID
I am pleased to present, Femme In The End Times, an exhibition by artist Danielle Mužina. This is Mužina’s first exhibition with the gallery.
The work in “Femme In The End Times” exhibition continues to ask questions about gender-based oppression through envisioning fractured, pink-drenched parallel worlds where characters confront personal and collective agency. In these new additions to her Pink Apocalypse series, she delves further into the rituals, relationships, and acts of care that emerge as survival strategies when structures crumble. These paintings juxtapose moments of vigilance, intimacy, and transformation to question how we navigate our tenuous present
Mužina says “This work emerged from the heightened urge to nurture community and build sanctuary—a “safe house”— as a queer person, woman, and survivor amidst looming societal and political instability going into 2025 in the United States. Throughout the series, acts of care, rebellion, and change emerge as vital survival strategies - even as motives and outcomes remain ambiguous. Rituals of connection—healing gestures, exchanges of knowledge, and moments of trust—become sources of empowerment and solidarity when external systems fail and environments collapse. Vivid color reinforces the emotional intensity of these imaginings. The dense patterns and shifting planes in my compositions echo the cyclical nature of fear, resilience, and preparation, evoking the emotional and physical precarity felt by marginalized individuals facing layered and ongoing adversity.”
These paintings visualize the blurred lines between safety and danger as we take on the work that lies ahead. By foregrounding the tension between vigilance and rest, isolation and solidarity, and vulnerability and strength, she invites viewers to reflect on how we care for ourselves and one another in the face of upheaval.
The characters in her figurative paintings interface with ambiguous social, physical, and environmental happenings as a metaphor for the ways we navigate our tenuous contemporary moment. Dr. Blasey-Ford’s courageous testimony and the #MeToo movement fueled her bravery in making paintings about her survivorship. She questions the impact of gender performance and trauma on relationships, selfhood, and experiences of space. Her works move through and react to the world around her as a survivor and a femme lesbian. She feels herself responding and resisting pressures for gender performance
In her current work, women react to an apocalyptic turn of events - the sky is often in the process of turning an unnatural shade of pink, and characters reveal ominous magenta wounds. Characters prepare for wanted or unwanted changes, real or imagined threats, and sufficient or insufficient resolutions in an uncertain future. Within and between groups, responses to environmental forces vary, creating either tension or solidarity. Her work grapples with the role figures play actively or inactively, together or divided, in both contributing to and addressing internal and external crises.
Danielle Mužina is an artist and educator from Cleveland, Ohio. She received her B.F.A at Ohio Wesleyan University, her M.A. at Eastern Illinois University, and her M.F.A. at Miami University. Mužina has studied at the Jerusalem Studio School in Civita Castellana, Italy, and completed residencies at Chautauqua School of Art, the Vermont Studio Center, and The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation. Her current Pink Apocalypse series was recognized with an Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and national scholarly organization SECAC’s Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award in 2021. Her artwork is included in John Seed’s 2023 book More Disruption: Representational Art in Flux, and she recently co-authored Creativity & Hope Amid Educational Restrictions in Viewfinder, the online journal of NAEA’s Museum Education division
Support for the creation of significant new works of art has been the core to the mission and program of the Bruno David Gallery since its founding in 2005. I am deeply grateful to Angela Griffy, who gave much time, talent, and expertise to the production of this catalogue. Invaluable gallery staff support for the exhibition was provided by Invaluable gallery staff support for the exhibition was provided by Jana Yan, Jialing Sun, Hazel Tao, Talia Zakalik, Jasmin Wu, Angela Griffy, and Grace Kahler.
CHECKLIST & IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION
THE POUR 2024
Oil and acrylic on wood panel 20 x 16 inches
PINK BAPTISM 2024
Oil and acrylic on wood panel
30 x 40 inches
THE ACOLYTES 2024
Oil and acrylic on wood panel
24 x 24 inches
VIGILANTES 2022
Oil and acrylic on wood panel
48 x 12 inches
BY MY MOTHER’S BLESSING
Oil, acrylic, and spray paint on wood panel
36 x 47.5 inches
INDELIBLE 2019
Oil and acrylic on wood panel
35 x 47.5 inches
SITTING PRETTY
35.5 x 46 inches
Oil, acrylic, and spray paint on wood panel
MADONNA DEL PARTO 2022
Oil, acrylic, and collage on wood panel 44 x 60 inches
HARVEST
LOOKOUT 2024
Oil and acrylic on wood panel
30 x 24 inches
Oil on wood panel
30 x 24 inches
DEPARTURE 2024
Oil on wood panel 30 x 24 inches
HOSTILE
x 47.5 inches
14 x 14 inches
CONJURE 2020
Acrylic on panel
PINK SLIT
2021 Oil and acrylic on panel 16 x 16 inches
SHARP PRACTICE
2020
14 x 18 inches
SKY’S BLEEDING
Oil and acrylic on panel
UNGUARDED 2019
on panel 12 x 12 inches
Acrylic
UNDAUNTED
WITNESS 2020
Acrylic on panel
20 x 16 inches
BELIEVER
BOUNDARIES
20 x 20 inches
2020
Acrylic on panel
22.5 x 19 inches
THE SLIP
Acrylic, oil, and collage on panel
DANIELLE MUŽINA
American. b. 1991, Cleveland, OH
EDUCATION
M.F.A., Studio Art, Miami University, 2016 Oxford, OH
M.A., Studio Art, Eastern Illinois University, 2014 Charleston, Illinois
Jerusalem Studio School, 2014 Civita Castellana, Italy
B.F.A. Fine Arts, Ohio Wesleyan University, 2013 Delaware, Ohio
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Femme in the End Times, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO (catalogue)
2024 Danielle Mužina, Doudna Fine Arts Center. Charleston, IL
2023 Pink Horizons, University of Wisconsin, River Falls, WI
A Reckoning in Pink, Buckham Gallery, Flint, MI
Pink Hemorrhage, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY
2022 Red Weather Pink Weather, Paducah School of Art & Design, Paducah, KY
Quickening, MadKat Studios, Pittsburgh, PA
PINT FIT, Wisconsin Union Galleries, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
The Skies Are Full Of Them, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO
2021 Pink Apocalypse II, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH
Pink Apocalypse, Georgetown College, Georgetown, KY
2019 Permeability, Miami University, Oxford, OH.
2017 Nesting, ZAINA Gallery, 78th Street Studios, Cleveland, OH.
2016 No Place: Like Home, Robert E. Lee Gallery, Miami University, Oxford, OH.
2015 And The Child Draws Another Inscrutable House, Burnell Roberts Triangle Gallery, Sinclair Community College, Dayton, OH.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Winter Juried Exhibition (2025), Juror: Glenn Goldberg, Blue Mountain Gallery, New York, NY
2024 15th Annual Art of Painting in the 21st Century Exhibition, Co-curated by John Natsoulas and John Seed, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA
2022 True Stories, Juried Group Show, The Untitled Space, New York, NY
2022 National Juried Exhibition, First Street Gallery, New York, NY
A Sense of Place, Juried Group Show, Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, GA
Magnum Opus 2022, Juried Group Show, Sacramento Fine Arts Center, Sacramento, CA
2021 Bowery Gallery International Juried Exhibition, Juror: Clintel Steed | Bowery Gallery, New York, NY
Together, Juried Group Show, Old Courthouse Arts Center, Woodstock, IL.
Women’s Work, Group Show, Indianapolis Arts Center, Indianapolis, IN.
Changing the World: Women Role Models, Women’s Caucus for Art, Washington, D.C.
3rd Annual Use Other Door, Juried Group Show, CORE Contemporary,Las Vegas, NV.
Liminal, Juried Group Show, Verum Ultimum Gallery, Portland, OR
Master Interpretations, Juried Group Show, Long Island Beach Foundation for the Arts, Long Beach, NY
Variance, Juried Virtual Exhibition, I Like Your Work Podcast
Summer 2021 Juried Exhibition, Blue Mountain Gallery, New York, NY
2021 Waterloo Arts Juried Exhibition, Waterloo Arts, Cleveland, OH
2021 National Juried Exhibition, Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY
2020 Balance & Resilience: Chautauqua National Juried Group Show, EKU Giles Gallery, Richmond, KY.
A Generous Kingdom IV, Juried Group Show, Verum Ultimum Gallery, Portland, OR.
Made in Paint, Resident Artist Group Show, Golden Artist Colors Gallery, Sam and Adele Golden Foundation, New Berlin, NY.
Dangerous Lullabies VI, Juried Group Show, Old Courthouse Arts Center, Woodstock, IL.
12th National Juried Exhibition, Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY.
2020 National Juried Exhibition, First Street Gallery, New York, NY.
2020 Waterloo Annual Juried Exhibition, Waterloo Arts, Cleveland, OH.
In Conversation Invitational Group Show, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL.
New Perspectives in Drawing and Painting, St. Louis Artists Guild, St. Louis, MO
2019 Use Other Door, Juried Group Show, CORE Contemporary, Las Vegas, NV.
Truth & Consequences: Chautauqua National Juried Group Show, Giles Gallery, Richmond, KY.
Parent Portraits, Group Show, Westbeth Gallery, New York, NY.
EMERGENT, Invitational Group Show, HeightsARTS, Cleveland Heights, OH.
126th Annual Juried Exhibition, Women’s Art Club of Cincinnati Cultural Center, Cincinnati, OH.
Instructor Exhibition, Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN.
RED, Juried Group Show, Arts Iliana Gallery, Terre Haute, IN.
Loss, Redemption, Grace, Juried Group Show, EDB4, Atlanta, GA.
2019 National Juried Painting Exhibition, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS.
2018 Sanctuary: 31st Annual National Juried Exhibition, South Cobb Arts Alliance, Austell, GA
Hybridity, Juried Group Show, Edwardsville Arts Center, Edwardsville, IL.
Fly the Coop, Installation + Performance, Rooms to Let Slavic Village, Cleveland, OH.
61st Chautauqua Annual National Juried Exhibition, Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY.
Magnum Opus XXIX International Juried Show, Sacramento Fine Arts Center, Sacramento, CA.
Far and Wide, Juried Group Show, Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, Woodstock, NY.
Proof of Existence: An Exhibit of Work by Contemporary Artists of Bosnian & Balkan Origin, Group Show, Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY.
2017 Drawing From Perception VIII, Juried Group Show, Wright State University, Dayton, OH.
Blue, Resident Artists Group Show, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT.
A Generous Kingdom II, Juried Show, Verum Ultimum Gallery, Portland, OR.
So Much Between, Two-Person Exhibition, Clara M. Eagle Gallery, Murray, KY.
Chautauqua School of Art Annual Exhibition, Fowler-Kellogg Fine Art Center, Chautauqua, NY.
Home Economics, Invitational Group Show, Woskob Family Gallery, State College, PA.
Crowded, Juried Group Show, Linus Galleries, Long Beach, CA.
2016 Chasing Ghosts, Juried Group Show, Verum Ultimum Gallery, Portland, OR.
A Sense of Place, Juried Group Show, Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, GA.
Interrupted, Juried Group Show, Coburn Gallery, Ashland University, Ashland, OH.
Interior Dimensions, Juried Group Show, Fine Arts Center of Hot Springs, Hot Springs, AR.
2015 Body and Mind, Juried Group Show, Sulfur Studios, Savannah, GA.
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