BIG NEWS!! This coming March a large solo exhibition of my costume / character work, titled JEWESS, will be co-hosted by the legendary La Mama theater company and the singular Invisible Dog, curated by Lucien Zayan. Large-scale photographs of me posing as my characters, videos of my performance pieces, and life-sized, fully costumed mannequins will be on display at the beautiful La Mama Galeria in Soho. Click on the pages for Pesach Punk, Sabbath Queen, and Taylor Bonnet to get sneak peek at the work that will be on exhibit.
Opening reception Friday, March 13th, from 6 to 9pm
Gallery visit hours (free):
Wednesday to Sunday from 12pm to 7pm
March 13 – April 12, 2026
La Mama Galleria
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
47 Great Jones St, New York, NY 10012
Free Admission
Gallery visit hours:
Wednesday to Sunday from 12pm to 7pm
La MaMa Galleria & The Invisible Dog are thrilled to present JEWESS, an exhibition by Danielle Durchslag.
Visual artist Danielle Durchslag designs costumes, inspired by both fashion and Jewish ritual, that she wears to portray female characters of her invention with distinct, oppositional approaches to contemporary Jewish identity and politics. Each of the three personas is tethered to a specific Jewish holiday and set of political values.
The exhibition includes large-scale photographs of Durchslag posing as each character, videos of her performing as these personas, and life-sized, fully costumed mannequins of all three figures, physically positioned to reflect their personalities and dynamics with one another. Collectively, the female trinity presented here forms a portrait of some of the most meaningful divisions and tensions present, amongst and between Ashkenazi Jews, in post-World War II life, from a place of joy and play.
For Sabbath Queen, Durchslag employs Queen Elizabeth I of England’s aesthetics to depict Judaism’s most famous female monarch – the invisible, holy entity whose weekly Sabbath visits every Friday begin the holiday. In Durchslag’s interpretation, this figure embodies conservative Jewish political power, right-wing Zionism, and empire. She’s a haughty, superior, judgmental, lethally confident sovereign.
In contrast, Pesach Punk references the gorgeously aggressive visuals and sounds of the early London punk movement to portray the Angel of Death from the Passover holiday – a divine figure associated with murder and loss. This rebellious, passionately anti-Zionist woman asserts radical progressive dissent and pushback against widely accepted, politically conservative tribal norms. She is angry, righteous, and pained by her outsider status.
Finally, Taylor Bonnet re-envisions a 1960’s headpiece worn by glamorous film star, and Jewish convert, Elizabeth Taylor, as a visual celebration of Passover. This character contends with notions of assimilation and “passing” in privileged Ashkenazi circles. She balances her strong sense of Jewishness with a desire to copy, and hide within, elevated WASP aesthetics. A doyenne of the highest order, she is fun, glamorous, “non-political,” and purposefully oblivious to the fraught elements present in her set of identities.