The Invisible Dog and La MaMa Galleria are thrilled to present JEWESS, an exhibition by Danielle Durchslag.
Visual artist Danielle Durchslag designs costumes, inspired by both fashion and Jewish ritual, that she wears to portray female characters of her invention with distinct, oppositional approaches to contemporary Jewish identity and politics. Each of the three personas is tethered to a specific Jewish holiday and set of political values.
The exhibition includes large-scale photographs of Durchslag posing as each character, videos of her performing as these personas, and life-sized, fully costumed mannequins of all three figures, physically positioned to reflect their personalities and dynamics with one another. Collectively, the female trinity presented here forms a portrait of some of the most meaningful divisions and tensions present, amongst and between Ashkenazi Jews, in post-World War II life, from a place of joy and play.
For Sabbath Queen, Durchslag employs Queen Elizabeth I of England’s aesthetics to depict Judaism’s most famous female monarch - the invisible, holy entity whose weekly Sabbath visits every Friday begin the holiday. In Durchslag’s interpretation, this figure embodies conservative Jewish political power, right-wing Zionism, and empire. She's a haughty, superior, judgmental, lethally confident sovereign.
In contrast, Pesach Punk references the gorgeously aggressive visuals and sounds of the early London punk movement to portray the Angel of Death from the Passover holiday – a divine figure associated with murder and loss. This rebellious, passionately anti-Zionist woman asserts radical progressive dissent and pushback against widely accepted, politically conservative tribal norms. She is angry, righteous, and pained by her outsider status.
Finally, Taylor Bonnet re-envisions a 1960’s headpiece worn by glamorous film star, and Jewish convert, Elizabeth Taylor, as a visual celebration of Passover. This character contends with notions of assimilation and “passing” in privileged Ashkenazi circles. She balances her strong sense of Jewishness with a desire to copy, and hide within, elevated WASP aesthetics. A doyenne of the highest order, she is fun, glamorous, “non-political,” and purposefully oblivious to the fraught elements present in her set of identities.
Danielle Durchslag is an artist and filmmaker based in Brooklyn. She has exhibited around the world, including solo exhibitions at Denny Gallery, Yale University, and Four Corners Gallery, in London. Her work has shown at venues including The Jewish Museum, the Toronto Shorts International Film Festival, the Invisible Dog Art Center, The Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna, The Queens Museum, The UK Jewish Film Festival, Winkleman Gallery, The Jewish Museum of Maryland, The Bronx Museum, The Philadelphia Film and Media Festival, Foley Gallery, The Ackland Art Museum, The Moscow Jewish Film Festival, Davidson Gallery, The New York Jewish Film Festival, and The Cannes Short Film Festival. Danielle’s work has been featured in Artforum, The New York Times, Photograph Magazine, Time Out New York, Clarion Content, The New York Post, The Forward, The Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, Lilith, The New York Daily News, The Independent, The Jewish News, The New York Observer, Image Journal, and on NPR radio, among others. She has appeared as a guest on many podcasts, including Fake the Nation, Judaism Unbound, The Standard Issue, The Savvy Creative, Disloyal, and Jew Too?. Danielle is a selected fellow of the New Jewish Culture Fellowship.
Location
La MaMa Galleria
47 Great Jones Street
New York, NY 10012
Admission:
Free
Dates
March 13 to April 12, 2026
Opening Reception
Friday March 13, 2026
6-9pm
Gallery Hours
TBA