About Danuta
Santa Barbara–based artist creating contemporary symbolic paintings shaped by memory, place, and lived experience. Born in Poland and now based in Santa Barbara, California, she is drawn to the way places stay with us — not as exact images, but as fragments, atmospheres, and imprints of memory.
Her paintings move between abstraction and expressive realism, using layered texture, organic and biomorphic forms drawn from nature, architectural lines, circles, and traces of the figure. The result is work that feels like an emotional map rather than a literal scene.
Originally from Poland, Danuta’s early experience in a politically controlled environment shaped her lifelong interest in the tension between constraint and expression. After immigrating to the U.S., she developed a unique visual language that merges realism with abstraction, structure with intuition, and biology with symbolism. She was the co-founder of the Aeolian Center for Psychotherapy and Creativity, which focused on public lectures and workshops exploring the intersection of psyche and art.
A Story Written in Layers –
How I Arrived Here
A short, personal video tracing my journey from a childhood in Poland, through years in science, to the unfolding of the artistic path that shaped who I am today.
“Art begins when someone interprets. Art happens when what is seen becomes mixed with the inside of the person who is seeing it.”
— Chaim Potok
Galleries and Exhibitions
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Arte del Pueblo -Museum of Contemporary Art -Santa Barbara CA, June 7 -July 25, 2026
ACC Show — Voice Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA · May 2026
Our Living Planet — Voice Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA · April 2026
HerStory—Fine LineGallery, Santa Barbara, CA March 2026
Sisters—Voice Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA March 2026
Begin—Voice Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA January 2026
Blue—Voice Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA December 2025
ACC Show — Faulkner Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA · October 2025
On the Edge! — Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, Montecito, CA, May 15 – June 14, 2025 Learn More
Wild! — Voice Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA April 2025
Concerning Myself — LAAA Online, Los Angeles, CA April 2025
Aurora — LAAA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA · December 2024
Turning Fork — LAAA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA · September 2024
Echoing — Voice Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA · September 2024
Blooming — Voice Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA · June 2024
Faces and Figures — Las Lagunas Gallery, Long Beach, CA · July 2024
An Artful Affair — Art Foundation of Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA · October 2023, 2024 &2026
Santa Barbara Art Association Shows — Faulkner Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA · December 2023 & 2024 & 2025
Ready to Hang — CAW – Community Arts Workshop, Santa Barbara, CA · November 2023 & 2024 & 2025
Off the Wall Reimagined — Museum of Art Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA · May 2023
Shape & Soul — Carpinteria Art Center, Carpinteria, CA · February 2023
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Celebrating 10 Years — Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA · December 2020
Clay and Paint — Clay Studio, Goleta, CA · February 2019
Out of the Studio — Distinctive Art Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA · February 2017
Unforgotten Cities — Gallery 113, Santa Barbara, CA · June 2016
Figurative Paintings— CASA Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA · September 2015
Black and White and Shades of Gray — JCC National Show, curated by Lynn M. Holley, Santa Barbara, CA · Jan–Feb 2015
Expressive Realism and Abstract Coexist — Studio 933, Santa Barbara, CA · Nov 2012
Solo Exhibition— Flowers Under House Arrest, Santa Barbara, CA · June 2012
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Los Angeles Art Association – LAAA
The Santa Barbara Art Association – SBAA (past Vice President)
Santa Barbara Artists Studio Tour – SBSA (Board member)
The Abstract Art Collective – AAC
La Cumbre Center for Creative Arts – LCCCA
The Carpinteria Art Center
Mesa Artists Studio Tour- MAST
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Art & Soul Gallery
1323 State Street, Santa Barbara, CAIlluminations Gallery
LCCCA; Gallery Row at La Cumbre Plaza
121 S. Hope Avenue
Santa Barbara, CA 93105Gallery Los Olivos
2920 Grand Avenue
Los Olivos, CA 93441Past: Ambassador Gallery (Art Galleries & Consultants) W. Canyon Perdido st Santa Barbara, CA
Follow my work on social media
Explore My Art
In quiet light, the figure is not seen but felt — a presence shaped more by absence than form. The shadow of Buddha does not command, it lingers softly, like breath against still water.
Lady in Hat, draped in elegance, wears her history like a hat—it shades not just her face but the many lives she has lived in silence.
A purple wave runs over her body—not of water, but of memory. In Purple Thread, the figure is partially veiled, her form caught between movement and stillness. The purple isn't just a color; it's a current, threading through her like a story not yet spoken