
Danica Phelps' new Mortgage Drawings examine her encounters with real estate investments and personal constraints. Several years ago, when interest rates were more favorable, Phelps broadened her real estate portfolio to enhance her income and improve her financial circumstances. This endeavor led to the acquisition of four properties, which serve as the foundation for large-scale drawings representing each bank mortgage—where each line drawn symbolizes a dollar owed to the bank. These lines emanate from the center of her body and extend as far as she can reach in every direction. The drawings delve into her economic and physical limits, reflecting her financial struggles and the challenges of an aging body, including a rotator cuff injury. Her practice highlights the contrast between the collective and the individual: while the lines blend into an indistinguishable mass within the drawing, they become distinct when viewed individually at their ends.
Danica Phelps draws with uncommon grace. Her line moves with liquid ease, following the momentum of time. It describes what happens in her life, and it also makes things happen. As her beautifually affirming show at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles attests, her line has agency.
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is very pleased to announce DANICA PHELPS: Many Drops Fill a Bucket, the artist's first solo exhibition in Los Angeles since 2011, to be presented from August 4 through September 1, 2018. The drawings and sculptures that Danica Phelps has created for Many Drops Fill a Bucket record the experiences that she and her son, Orion, shared together during trips to California and India earlier this year.
