2021
National Portrait Gallery, Outwin 2022
Donna Castellanos creates artworks using found objects that have been appreciated, things with history. Bertha, I’d like to know where you got the notion is a portrait of her grandmother, who was born in a small town in Missouri in 1917. When Bertha was young, she worked at a sewing factory installing zippers. The love of textiles and needlecraft has passed down through the generations, to the artist’s mother and aunts, and to Castellanos, who collectively stitched this homage.
Made entirely with zippers, pins, threads, buttons, knitting needles, and other “sewing notions” that the artist fastened onto fabric, this portrait plays with the idea of a coquette elderly woman who possesses her own notions or inclinations. While portrayed in a home interior, Bertha is anything but domesticated or passive. With silver swirling curls, breasts made of pin cushions, and a lit cigarette resting in an ashtray, she stands assertively, accompanied by her cat.
Fabric, zippers, pin cushions, snaps, paper packaging, knitting needles, and other sewing notions, 2020
Collection of the artist
2020
2019
Featured in the “Rocked and Rolled” traveling exhibition at Illinois State Museum Lockport (2019), ISM Springfield (2020), and SIU (2021).
Featured in the “Rocked and Rolled” traveling exhibition at Illinois State Museum Lockport (2019), ISM Springfield (2020), and SIU (2021).
Featured in the “Rocked and Rolled” traveling exhibition at Illinois State Museum Lockport (2019), ISM Springfield (2020), and SIU (2021).
Featured in the “Rocked and Rolled” traveling exhibition at Illinois State Museum Lockport (2019), ISM Springfield (2020), and SIU (2021).
Interactive community art installation featured at Beverly Arts Center, 2019. “Recovered: The Art of Donna Castellanos”
2018
Commission piece for local business, Marco’s Table in Elmhurst, IL.
Found kitchen materials, acrylic, gold leaf
NFS
2017
Recycled fabric, fur, instrument parts, cooking timer
26”x9”x11”
Inquire
Photo Credit: The Adomkovi
Interactive installation in combination with “King’s & Queens: Imagists and Pinball” at Elmhurst Art Museum.
2016
2015
