“Care is cyclical and quiet. It does not begin or end in a single act but echoes, gathers, and returns,” notes Daniela Cristallo. In her most recent body of work, Cristallo directs her gaze toward the often-overlooked nuances of daily life and the quiet gravity of human relationships. When you are with these works, you are made aware of the subtle changes in intensity and emphasis that are often the only indication of shifts in emotional states. Cristallo’s great gift is her ability to capture such shifts and express them through, and work them into, often disregarded and discarded physical materials.

Process remains central to Cristallo’s practice; the materiality of the work is held in equal value to the final form. There is no definitive start or end point. Instead, the structural strengths and peculiarities of the materials, such as repurposed grass grids and clay paper, become integral to the story. These materials possess an intrinsic integrity, requiring no outside agency to hold their form. The resulting message is one of quiet resilience and identity.

The oscillation between inner states and materiality remains a hallmark of Cristallo’s work. The materials she has chosen retain and embody an emotional, gestural trace that invites a deeper encounter. There is a shabbiness, a cosiness, a familiarity and ‘lived-inness’ about them which echoes those well-worn creature comforts that make up our own personal spaces. Ultimately, it is the quotidian, intimate, and human-scale character of her practice that compels the viewer. These works are not simply there to be observed; they are made to evoke. By utilizing workaday elements, Cristallo does not merely illustrate "care" but evokes its very context, leaving a profound and lasting impression.

The term "time-based" seems to come to mind often while encountering Cristallo’s practice, where it has a tacit emphasis. The awareness of time itself becomes an ingredient, apparent in the meticulous layering and removal of material on the surfaces, and on the urgency, too, apparent in many of her works. Process and materiality are integral with the concept. Everyday, even abject, repurposed materials are chosen for their structural qualities and their capacity to retain history. On this human scale, the connotations of these specific materials suggest a sense of displaced time. Traces of human presence linger, quietly recording the meeting of memory and decay.

At the core of this work are the value of both personal relationships and the home environment, as distinct from the ‘domestic’, which carries other quite different implications. Works such as Cycles of Tenderness and Fragments of Care offer visual insights into those ever-present emotional states that usually hum in the background. While "emotion" is often used to describe a reaction, or too often, a (perceived) over-reaction, Cristallo reminds us that emotion is fundamental and ever-present. We experience it in calm, in lassitude, and in exhaustion. These pieces illustrate an ongoing, careful accounting of the artist’s inner world, as a state of being rather than a reference to any specific object or individual.

The varied textures, materials and their equally diverse treatments all provide a record of human vulnerability and strength. Cristallo encourages a slower pace of observation, directing attention to the frayed edges of daily routines and the subtle qualities contained within them. What we abandon, disregard or take for granted is every bit as much a portrait of us and our state at any given moment, as what we choose to focus upon. Consequently, this publication functions as a space for reflection, offering an encounter with the overlooked rhythms of survival, the reality of, and the silent connections that bind people together through the simple objects left behind.

Matthew Crookes 2026