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Artwork Danielle Clough, 2025, embroidery on linen

Danielle Clough: Crewel Intentions
a solo exhibition
August 1 – August 24, 2025

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Paradigm Gallery + Studio is pleased to present Crewel Intentions, a solo exhibition of embroidered works by South Africa-based artist Danielle Clough. Crewel Intentions will debut Clough’s newest collection of textured and saturated portraits referenced from advertisements found in Playboy magazines from the 1970s. Her prized archive will be rendered into 12 embroidered works along with oversized banners that show every detail of Clough’s artwork. Clough decontextualizes pinup girls and Malboro men from their smoking ads and transforms them into present-day icons living in perfect worlds of woven texture and hues. Slowly, she builds up pools of color with just a needle and thread to recreate the feel of film photography and magazine print, blurring the lines between the vintage and the contemporary. Clough’s appreciation of her material and her subject allows her to start a conversation on graceful aging: celebrating outdated processes of making and the aesthetics that stand the test of time.

When Clough came across her first vintage Playboy in an antique shop years ago, she never expected to be so inspired by outdated imagery and advertisements, including the figures that command them. She enjoyed dissecting these images of carefree beauties and rugged cowboys and how they encapsulated the fashion, desires, and sensibilities of a generation. Her investigations of media allow her to identify the cyclical trends of beauty standards and how they evolve. Clough soon began to cultivate an archive of indulgence, time-stamped by feathery hair, vibrant patterns, and considerably outdated yet innovative photography practices. These snapshots sparked a new subject matter for Clough, leading to a more methodical process of creating, while showcasing hyper-stylized moments in a new medium. Before a needle is threaded, she is searching for the right figure to elevate, scanning to capture the grainy effect of magazine print, cropping, recoloring, and reworking to imagine royal portraits that explore the relationship of light and color. Using her own style mixed with crewel embroidery practices, Clough plays with passionate hues and thickness of wool to build her expressive compositions, unmasking the evergreen confidence and character lying dormant in the original photographs. Clough states, “There is an expectation where the images may be hypersexualized, but when they are stripped from context, they can be beautiful and illicit wholesome reactions in their newly recalibrated, woolly world.” As she works, she meditates on the humans that aged after the magazine was printed, how satisfying working with film photography feels, and the value that can be found in the antiquated among the new.

Through the exhibition, Clough redefines relevance by celebrating old media with an even older medium. Her intentional practice of elevating her craft with contemporary compositions invites her audience into a delightful time warp expanding with every single stitch.

Clough’s exhibition will be supplemented with embroidery workshops, where the artist will be teaching for all experience levels in the gallery, aligning with Paradigm’s mission to facilitate opportunities for artists as they grow their careers. 

Danielle Clough: Crewel Intentions will be on view on the second floor of the Paradigm Arts Building (12 N 3rd Street) from August 1 through August 24, 2025.

PRESS
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About Danielle Clough
The threads that link the ancient and the modern are an excellent starting point to describe the work of Cape Town-based artist, Danielle Clough. Danielle’s colorful, delicate embroidery celebrates the joining of the old with the new in a wistful and playful manner that is thoroughly modern in approach, yet nostalgic at heart. She utilizes a craft that is perceived as archaic but takes inspiration from current pop culture icons and the timeless beauty of nature. Her choice of materials also reflects this fascination with time and her vibrant picture-scapes are just as likely to adorn a vintage tennis racquet as they are a rusty chain link fence or a brand-new pair of Gucci sneakers.

Danielle learned the ins and outs of creative expression at The Red and Yellow School where she studied art direction and graphic design. She then began her career as an artist in the fields of visual art, digital design, and the making of bright fluffy things. She has been profiled by Instagram, Colossal, CNN, Vogue.com. Beautiful Bizarre, Hi-Fructose and the Creators Project, and has been published in the New York Times, Casa de Jardim, Hemslöjd, Evening Standard, Inspirations and Homespun amongst others. Her work has caught the attention of prominent clients such as Gucci, Adobe, The African Innovation Foundation, the United Nations, Origins, Nike, Kanye West, and Drew Barrymore.

Danielle’s work has been shown in various group shows in South Africa and in Moscow, London and around the United States.

About Paradigm Gallery + Studio
Paradigm Gallery + Studio® was established in 2010 by co-founders and curators, Jason Chen and Sara McCorriston. The gallery exhibits meaningful, process-intense contemporary artwork by emerging and mid-career artists from around the world. In 2022, Paradigm announced the opening of its new 5-story, 7,000 sq. ft. home, The Paradigm Arts Building, in Old City, Philadelphia. Now open to the public, the building boasts multiple floors of exhibition space, integrated in-house design and printmaking, a dedicated events floor, and art advisory offices. With this, Chen and McCorriston expanded their vision for the greater Philadelphia arts community. The gallery is at the heart of this vision, anchoring Paradigm’s overall mission of increasing access to the commercial art world, supporting artists and advancing their careers, and collaborating with like-minded partners to build a more equitable, sustainable arts economy for all.

EXHIBITION HOURS
Thursdays • 10 AM – 6 PM
Fridays • 10 AM – 6 PM
Saturdays • 11 AM – 6 PM
Sundays • 11 AM – 5 PM
And by appointment outside of hours.

MEDIA CONTACT
For all inquiries contact info@paradigm-gallery.com

LOCATION
12 N. 3rd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

SOCIAL MEDIA
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