Bio

Dana Caldera is an artist based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, whose pieces combine found collage material, handmade paper, textiles, painting, and printmaking. She earned her MFA at Houston Christian University and BS in Mechanical Engineering at Rice University, an interdisciplinary foundation that informs her process driven art-making. 

Caldera has had recent group shows at Artlink (Fort Wayne), Flatland Gallery (Houston), Weingarten Art Group (Houston), and a solo show at Box13 Art Space (Houston). She is a recipient of grants from the Wendy Wagner Foundation, the City of Houston, and the Indiana Arts Commission. Residencies include Atelierhaus Hilmsen and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston’s CAMHLAB. Her work has been published in Photo Trouvée Magazine and books: Collage Care: Transforming Emotions and Life Experiences with Collage and Echoes of Yesterday. Her artwork can be found in public and corporate collections including Sweetgreen and The Doug and Laurie Kanyer Art Collection.

Through her art, Caldera embraces the slow and unpredictable process of working with water and time, combining different media and materials to layers both physical and conceptual. Caldera’s artwork references traditional and craft methodologies, imbued with a contemporary spirit. Her combinations bring a unique interpretation and style to these materials, demonstrating new possibilities and storytelling strategies. 

Artist Statement

I collect, I unmake, then I make.

My family was in the memory business, as many families are, cherishing our every-year traditions and rituals. I was raised by carers: dinner-makers, hostesses, gardeners, planners. I was a collector, an observer. I gathered my memories as quilt-blocks of my life and took them with me as I grew up, arranging them and layering them, even deconstructing them, as I formed. Now I find myself as the one to give care and establish family rituals, as one who is now in the memory business. Life moves in this repetitive way.

In my practice, I collect ephemera and physically deconstruct and remake these items into a new object. The monumental collages, handmade papers, and mixed-media paintings reference the traditional material language of craft, book arts, printmaking, painting, and collage. The resulting pieces are combinations made from paper and fabric, and can exist as hybrid quilts, tapestries, newspapers, or even murals.

Referencing the visual inspiration of an oft-repainted wall, quilting patterns, dish towels, correspondence, vessels, and other objects of the domestic realm, my work investigates storytelling through the build up of material elements. Water, time, value, domestic labor, craft, memory keeping, storytelling, and community are additional themes that run through the work.