Ian Danner • Various works by the artist • Cotton, wool, mohair, rayon, and clay
Mend Ends
On View: March 18 - April 11, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, April 10, 6-8pm.
This event is free and open to all.
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TAC is pleased to present Mend Ends, a collection of recent works by UW-Madison Design Studies graduate student Ian Danner.
Mend Ends showcases recent work by artist and educator Ian Danner, including woven, knit, felted, wooden, and ceramic pieces. Danner’s art practice includes an extensive sampling of materials and techniques. This exhibition focuses on the emergence of wholeness, as each piece is assembled to emphasize the materials, processes, and feelings that are fundamental to reaching a finished object. To Mend Ends, means to make whole again. Through the performance of craft-centric processes and exploration of materiality, new and more earnest works are composed. These works often expose the (non)binary relationships between materials, systems, and forms to reflect on queerness.
About the Artist
Ian Danner is an artist, researcher, and educator who focuses on craft pedagogy and its entanglement with emergent and speculative queer becomings. Danner is a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) candidate in Design Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who focuses on mixed craft materials and processes to investigate (non)binary assemblage and performance. Danner’s artworks explore interiors by creating objects to adorn domestic spaces with a queer sensibility and explore materiality in fibers, clay, and wood, including how these materials can inform identity-building and promote community engagement.
Danner’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Textural Threshold Hair Salon: Dreadlock (2023), the UQUAM Design Center in Quebec, Current Textile Design | Textile Design Now (2023), the Contemporary Craft Museum in Los Angeles, Material Acts (2024), the Common Wealth Gallery, Queer Madison Biennial (2025), Surface Design Association, Exhibition in Print, Emulate, Recreate, Translate (2025), and the University of Arizona, Joseph Gross Gallery, Future Tense (2025). Danner earned a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Textiles and a dual-title MS degree in Art Education and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the Pennsylvania State University.
Exhibitions at TAC are supported by the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, Paula and David Kraemer, and by Dane Arts with additional funds from the Frautschi and Rowland Foundations, Diane Ballweg, and the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation.
If you are interested in information on supporting TAC’s nonprofit mission, and advancing creative expression through fiber art, please contact us.