From the Underworld to the Sky: A Conversation with Joan Danziger

Though Joan Danziger’s imagery gestures toward Surrealism, her sculpture resists classification. Her visual language is distinctly her own, drawn from observation, dreams, and the intuitive relationship between matter and fantasy. Over the course of more than 60 years, she has constructed not just forms, but an entire cosmology, one in which imagination serves as the connective tissue between art and the natural world.

“The Magical World of Joan Danziger,” her current retrospective at the American University Museum, features the full range of her imagined creatures—part myth, part organism. Within the show’s seemingly living environment, drawings and full-scale sculptures fill, flow through, and interact with the space as if responding to invisible currents: beetles emerge from underground and crawl up the walls; horses stampede across the earth; and trees stand upright with their roots exposed, as winged beings hover in midair. Accompanied by the sounds of Danziger’s sculptural musicians, the exhibition becomes a multisensory meditation on vitality and co-existence, continuing the artist’s lifelong dialogue between humans and animals.

An adjacent gallery dedicated to her most recent body of work, “Ravens: Spirits of the Sky,” showcases an artist still evolving. Crafted from chicken wire and hand-cut fragments of colored glass, these birds transcend the literal and become symbolic, forming the final tier of Danziger’s trilogy of Underworld, Earth, and Air. In their collective ascent, the ravens embody transformation—ordinary materials become radiant, and darkness turns luminous.

Zoe Kosmidou: How, where, and when did you begin your career as a sculptor? Can you mention some of your earliest exhibitions?
Joan Danziger: I grew bored with painting on canvas and started my first sculpture, Lady Abigail, in a friend’s studio. I made a wire sculpture using a boot and other attachments, resulting in a large white piece with glasses. It was exhibited in 1968 at the American Craft Museum in New York in a show called “People Figures.” Seeing my first work in a New York museum was very exciting. That moment marked the start of my career in sculpture.

I moved to Washington, DC, from New York later that year. Since I had stopped painting on canvas, I carved my own path with my fantasy sculpture when I arrived in DC. My first show, featuring my band Tangiers Starkey and the Flakey Nakes, was held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1970 as part of the exhibition “New Sculpture: Baltimore, Washington, Richmond.” I also helped start the Washington Sculptors Group to promote sculpture around the city. Back then, DC mainly showcased paintings.

ZK: Your 60-year retrospective at the American University Museum highlights an impressive body of work. Looking back, what consistent themes or ongoing concerns do you notice in your sculpture?
JD: Looking at the span of my work, I see a continual interest in nature, animals, and a vital life force. I combine different elements of fantasy and reality to create an inner world of my own dreams. My work merges narrative imagery and symbolism to craft a personal mythology.

ZK: Your themes revolve around natural life beneath the earth, on the surface, and in the air. Can you tell us about these creatures, and how deeply do you connect with them?
JD: Animals and humans co-exist in the natural world; we all learn to live and grow from each other. I used to backpack a lot and sleep in the mountains. In the underworld, beetles have their own mythology. They start as dung beetles in the earth, then climb out into the sky and transform toward the sun. The mythology of scarab beetles is that they are givers of life and of the earth. In Egypt, people wear beetle amulets when they die so they can be transported to the sky.

I have always believed that nature in general and trees in particular are full of spirits. Like humans, trees have their secret relationships and can help each other. When trees are sick, they band together to assist each other. Humans should do the same. My ravens are reflections of life in different colors. In nature, ravens seem black, but if you see them in the sun, they shimmer with colors like purple and blue. Ravens are powerful symbols to me, associated with intelligence, transformation, prophecy, and death.

ZK: Many of your sculptures evoke mythic, symbolic, or archetypal forms. Which ideas feel most urgent to you now?
JD: I am working deeply with mythic symbols. My glass sculptures of beetles, horses, and ravens function as symbolic forms, crossing many cultures. I began with the scarab beetles underground, then moved to horses pounding on the ground, and finally to ravens flying in the sky.

ZK: Material exploration has been a core part of your practice. How do you choose materials to best support a concept, and has your connection to materials evolved over your career?
JD: My materials have evolved. I started with drawings and painting on paper and canvas, then built up surfaces with mixed-media techniques. Now I work with glass. I am not a glass artist; I am a sculptor who uses glass within a wire armature to create three-dimensional forms.

ZK: How did you first start experimenting with soldered wire and chicken wire armatures after abandoning painting in 1968, and what challenges did that lightweight “inside-out” structure solve for creating dynamic poses?
JD: When I wanted to start working in sculpture, I was not interested in using stone, wood, marble, clay, or any other solid materials. I knew sculpture needed an armature, so I turned to wire, which is easy to form and shape. Many sculptures also needed additional support with welded steel.

ZK: Could you describe how you layer glass shards to create iridescent effects in your beetles and horses? How does light refraction transform a static sculpture into something dynamic?
JD: Using glass in different colors reflects the light and creates iridescent effects on the surfaces. I cut the glass into various shapes, forming abstract patterns of form and color. I trained as an abstract painter, and I feel like I am painting with glass. The raven sculptures come alive because they soar through space, and the vivid glass shards add to the mystery.

ZK: Your use of color is distinctive. How do you think about the structure and emotional impact of color?
JD: I have always loved color, and before making my most recent glass sculptures, I painted all of my other sculptures. By painting them, I emphasized the form and character of each sculpture. I just finished painting my most recent sculpture, Symphony of Singing Fishes (2006–25).

ZK: Sculpture involves both physical and psychological space. How do you want viewers to experience your work in the museum environment?
JD: I want viewers to feel emotion, engage with each sculpture, and react to it. Each viewer brings their own experience and personality to their viewing of art. They also have their own preferences. Someone looked at the scarab beetle sculptures and said, “I hate bugs. I have enough in my home,” while others love them crawling up the wall with their shimmering glass.

ZK: Over such a long career, artistic contexts and movements evolve considerably. How have external influences—cultural, political, or artistic—shaped your choices and directions?
JD: I have always been shaped by my own personality and dream world. My direction and choices have been my own. I have never been influenced by other artists. I think my work is very personal.

ZK: How have intuition and mythology influenced your process compared to planning or research?
JD: I read a lot about mythology in other cultures, particularly Greek and Egyptian mythology.

ZK: You have traveled the world, and many of your works are inspired by those journeys. Are there particular experiences and places that have shaped your career?
JD: Traveling in India and seeing the vivid colors and forms, termite mounds in Africa, Cappadocia in Turkey, and living in Rome with its palaces and columns—all of these have been intertwined into my work. I was very impressed with the termite mounds in Africa, which are enormous and overwhelming. The wonderful, strange little houses in Cappadocia inspired my tree sculpture, Joshua Tree Concert (2008), with caves at the bottom.

ZK: From the Surrealist paintings you did at Cornell, where you earned your BFA, to your current “Ravens” series, how has the influence of artists like Bosch and Dalí evolved into your hybrid human-animal worlds?
JD: When I was young and my family lived in New York, my parents took me to the Museum of Modern Art and other museums. I was always fascinated by Magritte, Dalí, and other Surrealists. Their dreamworld became mine. I started doing strange little pen-and-ink drawings of creatures and animals. Later, I became fascinated by women Surrealists like Leonora Carrington and Dorothea Tanning.

ZK: What surprises you most about seeing 40 of your sculptures together?
JD: Having a retrospective at American University is incredible, and seeing my sculptures from 1968 to 2026 has shown me the diversity of my work. I have worked in series, and the show features four landscape sculptures, my horses, beetles, musical figures, flower series, and textile carpets. I borrowed 20 sculptures from collectors and three from the university collection. These pieces all come from different stages of my life. The landscape series was inspired by my travels, like the termite mounds. There are many different phases of my career and ideas in the retrospective that it was important for me to see.

ZK: At 91, you remain active, creative, and hardworking. Are you thinking of new themes and works to potentially be included in a 70-year retrospective at age 101?
JD: I never think about age. I only think about creating work that is personal and spiritual. Where my imagination leads me is unknown. I feel entangled in fleeting memories of real or imaginary journeys. I am always open to new imagery. There is so much to create.

“The Magical World of Joan Danziger” is on view at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC, through May 17, 2026.