Since earning her MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago four years ago, Bangladesh RPCV Dannielle Tegeder has signed with Chicago’s Jan Cicero Gallery, been featured in three solo shows, and won both The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Studio Grant and the Bronx Museum’s Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) grant
Dannielle Tegeder
Since earning her MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago four years ago, Dannielle Tegeder has signed with Chicago’s Jan Cicero Gallery, been featured in three solo shows, and won both The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Studio Grant and the Bronx Museum’s Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) grant. Tegeder’s work, which delves inside the human body and under the city streets, will be appearing at New York’s New Museum in the fall of 2002. Tegeder received her BFA from SUNY Purchase; she currently resides in New York City.
The interview was conducted by Ilana Stanger of TheArtBiz.com.
You’ve pointed to “astronomical charts, 18th century Dutch floral paintings, Indian miniature paintings, and medical and botanical illustrations” as inspiration for your work. Do you spend time in libraries searching for these images, or do they find you?
I do a lot of research on the Internet. Lately, I’ve been looking at mostly architectural stuff--I’ve become interested in underground plans and mapping systems, and the way information is moved along underground systems.
Your previous work explored the cells and organs inside the human body. What interests you about these hidden worlds? Why did you shift from depicting systems inside the body to under the city?
I’ve always been interested in microsystems and the way miniature systems are connected, whether organic or mechanical--I even have a microscope. My life changed since moving from Chicago to New York. Being on the subway, and just looking at all the lights each night, has definitely affected my work.
There is tons of color in your painting...
Color is really important to me. After college I was in the Peace Corps in West Africa and I also spent a year in India. I was really struck by color combinations you just wouldn’t see in the West. People wore orange, green, turquoise—-all at once. My colors are influenced by those experiences, as well as by pop culture: candy packaging, gap sweaters.
Do you think about color in terms of the sale ability of your work?
I don’t, and I try not to. I have a lot of big drawings on paper, which are hard to sell. Everything is so expensive-—frames are $600 for each of those pieces. I don’t pay for frames, but I’m young and beginning and my gallery had to foot a lot of money just to frame two pieces. I try not to think about what sells, on purpose, but this is my business. This year I began to set aside eight to ten hours a week for business-—tax forms, sending out slides, calling people who are interested in my work and arranging studio visits. I was never taught about any of this in art school, which is a huge problem.
How did you get the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program?
I’ve known about this grant for a while. I have set grants I apply for each year, and this was one of them. Last year I decided to apply for everything. A friend and I each sent out thirty slide packets. I had so many rejection letters...meanwhile, my friend was becoming famous. I applied for this grant twice before, which shows that it’s just really worth applying. Each panel is different, and panels change. After this I will be in the AIM program at the Bronx Museum, which I applied to three times before getting.
You have a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. I’m always impressed by what I perceive as the confidence necessary to enter an art program at 18. When did you decide to study painting?
It does take confidence. I didn’t have it right off—-I did one year at the College of New Rochelle first. My mother kept saying, ‘but you wanted to study art.’ I dreamed of going to the Art Institute of Chicago. I reapplied twice there too, but in the end I got in and loved it.
Did your MFA program meet your expectations?
It was the best place in the world. I loved graduate school. My work though, was at its worst, which is funny to think back on. Graduate school destroyed my work. There were so many influences and critiques, and I wasn’t sure of myself. I was intimidated, and it kind of ruined it. India cured me. The day after finishing my MFA I went to India. Traveling there made me realize why I do art. It’s not about a gallery. If you depend on success you’ll never be satisfied, because there’s always another level.
Will you stay in New York after your grant expires?
Yes.
Do you notice a difference between the NY and the Chicago artist scene?
It’s so different. Chicago is great for a young artist. I was able to live in a huge loft, teach, and paint a lot. I made a lot of work. Here it’s very expensive, so it’s been a real trick. You can go to openings every night---the magnitude of work you can see is amazing. I’ve been exposed to a lot of things, a lot of role models. In Chicago there aren’t that many artists supporting themselves on their work.
How did you end up with your Chicago gallery?
I went in to this gallery and...all the planets must have been in alignment. I’ve never done this before, and I would not recommend it, but I just thought that my work would fit in with the gallery, and I had my slides on me, so I went up to this young guy at the desk and said, ‘I’m a painter’ and asked if I could show him my slides. He looked and said, ‘You know what? I love them.’ Within five days I had a gallery. Before that I’d felt like I’d been in every gallery in Chicago and been rejected by each. Again, it’s all about persistence.
Has having gallery representation changed your art?
Yes. I worked alone for years. I had no shows to work for, and now I have two. I have one in November and one in December, and I need to think about who is gonna get what, and what my schedule is. I never had to worry about that before because no one ever saw my work. Having deadlines makes you work. Now I have a sign-up sheet beside the studio door—-I sign-in and out to keep track of my hours.
You also sell work with Paintings Direct.com. Why did you decide to sell work on the Internet?
I think the Internet is really exciting and interesting. It’s been a great PR tool, because people across the country can see it. I looked at a lot of Internet sites and applied to that one, and I love my page. I keep the work that I sell there separate from the galleries.
What will you do in August when your grant expires?
I love teaching, and I’ll be teaching at SUNY Purchase in the fall. If I could choose I would teach two to three classes and spend the rest of my time in the studio.
Sometimes I definitely have ‘what am I doing’ days. Before this grant I was living in Chicago and teaching at the University of Illinois. I had a full salary, benefits, stock options, a good apartment, and a relationship…. I gave that up. But this has always been my dream. I got a lot back, and I had to take a leap. On my first day here they had an open studio. I had some half-finished paintings—-I had just arrived-—but I put them up and opened my door. The director of the New Museum came in and put me into a group show right then. I’d made such a huge transition, and that was like a sign saying I’d made the right choice.
What would you tell emerging artists?
Go out and look at a lot of work. Go to openings, galleries. I didn’t have a lot of role models-—my family members are not artists or scholars and I was told you couldn’t be successful. It’s been important to find people doing it.
Get good slides. It took me a long time to get that together. Your slides are what go out-—not you, your studio, or the way your work really looks. It’s a huge expense and commitment, but getting professional slides is the best thing I ever did.
The main thing is to paint. Artists alone stop making work, and since school I have been alone a lot. I started a critique group that met every month, which kept me working for the first two years. Your work has to be seen, it’s part of the cycle.
It sounds simple but there are so many distractions. You need a schedule. A friend of mine had a lot of shows, and I had none. I was kind of painting, and I was kind of pissed. She told me to plan an imaginary show. I did it—-I scheduled a date for a solo show and made up a gallery name and put it on my calendar. I planned out the entire gallery space and created pieces for it. It worked—-I got my show.
This article was originally created for TheArtBiz.com. It appears on NYFA Interactive courtesy of the Abigail Rebecca Cohen Library.
