Dané Estes (b. 1988, Rochester, NH) is a Los Angeles–based artist working across painting, sculpture, and works on paper. His work begins with a simple idea: that nothing we see, remember, or understand about ourselves stays entirely fixed.
This is most visible in his paintings, which are built up and stripped back over time. Layers are added, removed, covered, and exposed, leaving behind traces of earlier versions of the work. The history of making the painting remains present in its surface, even when much of it can no longer be seen.
His works on paper often use fragments from previous paintings alongside retinal imagery, while his sculptures give these ideas a physical form through shapes that appear to be growing, emerging, or changing.
Across the work, transformation is less a theme than something that happens through the process of making. Dané is interested in what gets carried forward, what disappears, and how those accumulated changes affect what we see and remember.