Joya: AiR / Dana Hemenway/ USA

photo Simon Beckmann

“Working alongside my partner and collaborator Matt Robidoux, I found myself drawn to experimenting with the natural clay processed from the lands surrounding Joya: AiR. Knowing that I would be making objects that were not permanent (as the clay would remain unfired), I found a sense of freedom to create unfettered and without ‘set’ plans. I borrowed textures and forms and worked intuitively with the clay, subconsciously referencing inspiration from the way architecture and land integrated at Joya: AiR, as well as a visit to the Alhambra prior to arriving in Parque Natural de Sierra María-Los Vélez. After a year and half of pandemic stress, this kind of making was very welcomed, and I will take these intuited forms, as well as the amazing colors and textures of the flora and geography gathered on daily walks back with me to San Francisco to inform my next body of work.”

— Dana Hemenway, July 2021 

Dana Hemenway is an artist, curator, and educator based in San Francisco. She received her MFA from Mills College and her BA from University of California Santa Cruz. Hemenway has had residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art (Omaha, NE), ACRE (Stueben, WI), SÍM (Reykjavik, Iceland), The Wassaic Project (Upstate New York), and in 2020 she was awarded a Residency at Recology San Francisco (scheduled for 2021)) . Dana is the recipient of The San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant and a Southern Exposure Alternative Exposure Grant. She has a permanent public art commission in SFO’s Terminal 1. Dana has exhibited her artwork locally, nationally, and internationally. From 2015 – 2017, Dana served as a co-director of Royal Nonesuch Gallery, an artist-run project space in Oakland, CA. She is represented by Eleanor Harwood Gallery.