Dana Montlack
A Window Into The Wild
We are proud to showcase artist Dana Montlack's monumental Shelter Cove sculptural works. Installed in the heart of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina’s most vital ecosystem, this trio of glass panels, each 5 feet tall and 250 pounds, sits amongst ocean, marsh, and maritime forest.
Montlack’s complex compositions—built from photographs, scientific visuals, and hand-drawn elements—are heat-fused directly into glass through a meticulous kiln-firing process. The result is a glowing, light-reactive surface that shifts with the sun, drawing the viewer in with color and complexity.
Together, the three works create a full portrait of the island, its scenery and its spirit.
MARITIME FOREST, photographic composite embedded in curved glass, 60 x 72 x 12 in, 2025. The work honors the magnolias, loblolly pines, live oaks, spanish moss, saw palmettos, owls, and hawks that define the inland wilds of the island.
MARITIME FOREST (detail), photographic composite embedded in curved glass, 60 x 72 x 12 in, 2025.
MARSH, photographic composite embedded in curved glass, 60 x 72 x 12 in, 2025. Ghost crabs, fiddler crabs, oysters, periwinkles, ibis, herons, and spartina grass, all suspended in layered, tidal compositions. A glowing tribute to one of the most productive ecosystems on the planet.
MARSH (detail), photographic composite embedded in curved glass, 60 x 72 x 12 in, 2025.
OCEAN, photographic composite embedded in curved glass, 60 x 72 x 12 in, 2025. The work draws from nautical charts and bathymetric maps, showcasing creatures both iconic and overlooked: loggerhead turtles, redfish, blue crabs, sea lettuce, diatoms, jellyfish. It’s a celebration of biodiversity beneath the waves.
OCEAN (detail), photographic composite embedded in curved glass, 60 x 72 x 12 in, 2025.
Artist Dana Montlack has spent her career blending art and science, in the process encouraging environmental awareness and reflection. Her signature style is hybrid image-making that combines photography, cartographic data, microscopic imagery, and drawing.
Montlack has collaborated with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and recently completed a NOAA-funded visual study of climate change’s effects on the Georgia coast. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, has been shown at Burning Man, and is represented in private and public collections internationally.