Songbook VII, 2023

Dané Estes (born 1988, Dover, NH) is a Los Angeles-based painter and sculptor. He studied fashion at Parsons – The New School, New York. His sculptural mixed media works include oil paint, charcoal, tar, and wood. Estes’ two-dimensional works range from large-scale bold, layered, gestural oil-on-canvas paintings to more intimate oil stick-on-paper drawings. His pieces include smudges, squiggles, and meandering lines, often restricted to two or three colors or tones. There is a force to the artist’s gesture, as well as a softness, and the repetitive nature of his lines imply a seeking or searching, so that the viewer experiences the dynamic process of art-making, rather than a static, stagnant piece. As a result, Estes’ works continue to move as we enter into the space with them.