A community magazine showcasing extraordinary foreign talent in America
Dan Goes to Spain!
Dan Mandelbaum was born in 1994, grew up in New Jersey, and attended Pratt Institute, graduating in 2016 with a BFA focused on ceramic sculpture. He has shown work mainly around New York, as well as in Miami, Copenhagen, Brussels, London, and other places. For the last ten years, Dan’s medium has predominantly been ceramics, making work that resembles abstractions of ambiguous living things or objects from the external world. Dan’s interest lies in the infinite challenges and unknown outcomes that come with creation. He aims to have fun and enjoy these discoveries without being too rigid–the work is a collaboration between him and the medium. In Spain, Dan began working with stone, which has its own set of unique qualities and obstacles. He seeks to continue learning new things and remains fascinated by the process of making.
Panny Chayapumh: So, you are Dan of New Jersey—perfect. And you have an American passport?
Dan Mandelbaum: Yeah, yeah. American passport holder.
PC: How did you end up in Spain, and where are you now? I understand you had a fellowship there.
DM: I actually just got back from Mallorca about a week ago. I came back to New Jersey, to my parents’ place, just to decompress. I’m staying here for now, catching up with some friends in New York, and figuring out my next steps.
I had a colleague who moved to Mallorca about five years ago. She invited me to visit, and I ended up going for two weeks, back in 2021 or 2022. While I was there, I met a woman who ran an artist residency [Palmyra Sculpture Center] for stone carving. She was interested in having me stay, initially for a month or two. I decided to go, and at the time, I had just lost my apartment in New York—just being a dumbass—so I didn’t really have any obligations pulling me back.
She was kind enough to let me use the space beyond the original residency period, and hired me to help develop a ceramic studio. I worked for her while also trying to make extra money through landscaping and other odd jobs, and ended up staying for about two years.
PC: So the residency itself was only about two months?
DM: Yeah, but after talking to her, she said I could stay and help out. That was really generous of her. The residency was still in its early stages—it wasn’t fully developed yet, and she was working to make it more sustainable and profitable.
It was mostly just me there, and occasionally one or two other artists would come for a month. There was a little guesthouse on the property where they would stay.
PC: It sounds like it was more of a private invitation rather than a formal application process, right?
DM: Exactly. It was more like a friend-of-a-friend situation.
PC: What kind of visa were you on?
DM: None, actually. I didn’t have a visa. I’m not really sure what’s going to happen when I try to go back to Europe.
With an American passport, you can stay for 90 days in the Schengen area. If you overstay, there’s a penalty, but I was never able to figure out exactly what that entailed. Some people said you could be banned for two or three years, others said it might just be a fine of a couple hundred euros. I did try to look into getting a visa, but Spain doesn’t really have an artist visa like some other countries do.
PC: I’ve had situations where I had to go to Europe for work, but since I have a Thai passport, I had to get a visa beforehand. The best option was a tourist visa, but I was advised not to say I was there for work, even though I technically was.
DM: Yeah, exactly. It gets complicated when you start making money. They want you to start paying taxes for being there. I worked for the residency and everything was sort of under the table. It was like black money because it just gets complicated with doing it legally.
There are ways that I could have gotten a visa. You could get a job where they sponsor you, which is quite difficult because you have to be very specialized in your field. The other way would be getting married, which was a possibility at one point.
PC: Yeah, were you considering that?
DM: Yeah, I was going to say, I met some nice people in Spain…
Another option was the non-lucrative visa, which is more for people with savings. Basically, you prove you have enough money to support yourself without working, and they let you stay longer. Or you could apply for a residence permit. If you stay in Spain for two to three years, you can apply for a residence permit and eventually become a citizen.
PC: Do they also call it a “green card” in Europe?
DM: No, they don’t call it a green card… [more like] a residence permit. Which is confusing, it was explained to me as being exactly the same as a green card, like someone immigrating to the United States.
PC: Although you didn’t go through with it, you did accrue a certain amount of knowledge about it!
DM:Yeah, but it also made me really paranoid. The whole time I was there, I worried that if I got pulled over or stopped by police, they’d check my passport and realize I was overstaying. But honestly, it never happened.
Immigration in Spain isn’t as strict as it is in the U.S., especially now with how extreme things have gotten here under Trump. In Mallorca, tourism is the main industry, so they like it when people stay and spend money.
PC: Did you get to travel much while you were in Mallorca?
DM: I mostly stayed put because I was worried about airports checking my passport. Before my 90 days were up, I went to Ireland for a month, then came back to Mallorca. I also went to France for a bit to visit a friend. So it was possible [to travel], but there was always a small risk.
PC: It’s interesting hearing your perspective, because it’s not often that an American passport holder experiences that kind of immigration anxiety.
DM: Yeah, but the stakes were much lower for me. I was just hanging out in Mallorca. For undocumented immigrants in the U.S., it’s way more serious.
PC: While you were in Mallorca, how much of a community were you able to build?
DM: I tried my best. I met a lot of great artists and made some amazing friends—people I want to stay connected with for a long time.
That said, coming from New York, where you’re surrounded by all kinds of weird, eccentric people, I missed that energy. Mallorca had interesting people too, but it was different. After two years, I really started missing my weirdo New York friends.
PC: You’re a fan of eccentricity?
DM: Definitely. I’m weird myself, and even though I was around other artists, I still felt like an outsider—a foreigner.
PC: Did you learn any Spanish? Do you speak any Spanish?
DM: Just enough to get by. I worked with a gardener named Cisco, and we’d chat while working. I think he liked hanging out with me because the more we talked, the less work we had to do.
I could’ve learned more, but my main focus was learning stone carving. And I think I achieved that.
PC: Well, your work is beautiful. Is stone carving a big craft there?
DM: It exists, but it’s not necessarily what Mallorca is known for. What really stood out to me were the festivals—they’re technically Christian rituals, but they have a very pagan feel. One of the biggest ones involves people dressed as demons, called dimonis. Once a year, they parade through the village at night, banging drums and setting off fireworks. There are so many fireworks and sparks that the whole place looks like it’s on fire—like something out of hell.
One of the main festivals is called Sant Antoni. The idea is that they’re letting the demons out for a night. It’s really wild. A lot of Europe has these really old religious traditions. You can see it in the architecture too—there’s a medieval feel to so many places. You don’t get that as much in the U.S.
Mallorca had other strange customs too. Like once a year, people bring their animals to the church to be blessed.
PC: They do that in New York too! At St. John the Divine, way uptown!
DM: Exactly. People even brought their cars to be blessed. Every village in Mallorca has a beautiful church, so it’s a big part of life there.
PC: Did any of the festivals, architecture, characters, or costumes you saw find their way into your work?
DM: The way churches imagine things—taking something described in a text and turning it into something physical—really inspired me. You see a lot of stone gargoyles, depictions of demons, and surreal creatures. I try to draw from that for some of my sculptures, maybe in like a sweeter way—not so evil working.
There’s incredible architecture in churches—the sheer amount of time and effort put into building them is amazing. I’m not a religious person, but I respect the dedication and craftsmanship that went into creating these places. I want to bring that same level of belief and commitment to my own work—to put in the hours and make something meaningful.
PC: You could make a church by Dan. It wouldn’t have to be religious—maybe a Dan temple where people can bring their pets.
DM: That’d be crazy. I’d love that.
PC: I assume there were some immediate positives about your experience at the residency, considering you extended your stay for two years. What were some of the highlights?
DM: When I left New York, I was frustrated—bored of doing the same thing every day, dealing with high stress. But when I got to Mallorca, everything was relaxed. The atmosphere was peaceful, the landscape was beautiful. People just have this calm energy. It’s nothing like New York, where you walk into a bodega and people are yelling, or the subway is full of angry commuters.
But after two years of that, it started feeling like too much peace. I actually started to miss the urgency of New York—the high stress, the driven energy.
PC: I think I need a bit of pressure too. I like to think I’m independent and can get things done without deadlines, but at the end of the day, pressure—when balanced—is a good thing.
DM: It’s a necessary evil. People do get things done in Mallorca, but it’s at a completely different pace. When I first got there, I liked that—if you didn’t feel like working or if it was too hot, you could just go to the beach. There was no stress.
But beyond that, Mallorca has a lot going for it—the food is great, the beaches are beautiful, and I did a lot of hiking. It’s the perfect place to recharge, to heal. While I was there, I actually stopped drinking, and it’s been about a year and a half now. I’m happy about that. I think it was a good step for me in terms of growing up.
PC: Yay, for health!
DM: Many people go to Mallorca to get better or heal. There’s a lot of Eastern medicine in Mallorca, like meditation, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, and energy work, which I wasn’t able to fully wrap my mind around. But I think it helps people. In Mallorca, people go to meditate or see gurus.
PC: What’s something from Mallorca that you’d like to bring to your practice in New York, or even just into your daily life—things you’d like to do in your own time?
DM: Something simple, like I would take walks—lots of walks—and just enjoy being outside. Take it easy, try to relax more and try not to rush. Sometimes in New York, I’d be in a rush to go nowhere.
I think if you’re present, it’s easier to be happy. If you take a walk or sit on a bench in the park, it’s a form of meditation. Maybe that’s something I’d bring back…I would like to take better care of myself. That’s what I was trying to do in Mallorca, and if I could do that in New York, I think I’d be happier.
PC: I hope you’re able to do that. I think everyone could use more time for themselves.
While you were away, how disconnected were you from home? Did you FaceTime or keep in touch with your friends from home? Or were you just so absorbed in Spain that you were focused on it completely?
DM: We used WhatsApp or Instagram messages, but I didn’t talk to many people from New York. My attention was just in Spain for a long time. I want to try to be more present for my friends and see them more. I think I took them for granted while I was there. Friendships are really important to me, and I miss my friends in New York.
PC: I hope you’ve had a moment to tell them that. What’s next for you?
DM: Yeah. I’ve got some things in the preliminary stages—maybe in the next couple of months, I’ll go somewhere and carve more stone, and look for another studio.
I’m not sure what’s next, but something will come up. I want to just explore a little and reconnect.