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Dan Colen

Blowin’ in the Wind

April 5–July 5, 2012
Merlin Street, Athens

Installation view, photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view, photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view Photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view Photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view Photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view Photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view Photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view Photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view, photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view, photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view Photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view Photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view Photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view Photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view Photo by Thanos Nioras

Installation view Photo by Thanos Nioras

Works Exhibited

Dan Colen, Corn oil bottle, 2011 Mixed media, Dimensions variable

Dan Colen, Corn oil bottle, 2011

Mixed media, Dimensions variable

Dan Colen, Aluminum tray, 2011 Mixed media, Dimensions variable

Dan Colen, Aluminum tray, 2011

Mixed media, Dimensions variable

Dan Colen, Roof shingle, 2011 Mixed media, Dimensions variable

Dan Colen, Roof shingle, 2011

Mixed media, Dimensions variable

Dan Colen, Poster, 2011 Mixed media, Dimensions variable

Dan Colen, Poster, 2011

Mixed media, Dimensions variable

Dan Colen, Mop, 2011 Mixed media, Dimensions variable

Dan Colen, Mop, 2011

Mixed media, Dimensions variable

Dan Colen, Metal scrap, 2011 Mixed media, Dimensions variable

Dan Colen, Metal scrap, 2011

Mixed media, Dimensions variable

Dan Colen, To be titled, 2011 Mixed media and collage on paper, 39 ¾ × 28 ⅞ inches (101 × 73.3 cm)

Dan Colen, To be titled, 2011

Mixed media and collage on paper, 39 ¾ × 28 ⅞ inches (101 × 73.3 cm)

Dan Colen, To be titled, 2011 Mixed media and collage on paper, 24 ⅞ × 34 ⅛ inches (63.2 × 86.7 cm)

Dan Colen, To be titled, 2011

Mixed media and collage on paper, 24 ⅞ × 34 ⅛ inches (63.2 × 86.7 cm)

About

There ain't too much I can say about this song except that the answer is blowing in the wind. It ain't in no book or movie or TV show or discussion group. Man, it's in the wind-and it's blowing in the wind. Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh I won't believe that. I still say it's in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it's got to come down some...But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know...and then it flies away.
—Bob Dylan

Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Dan Colen.

Colen's art combines the intensity of real life with reflection on the subjects of immanence and belief, taking up with the extant objects encountered along his wandering path in order to revitalize the very stuff and syntax of painting. In his painting exhibition "Trash" (2011), he tapped into the individual histories of abject materials, exposing their latent energies as painting tools, vestigial imprints, and physical elements that often remain attached to the canvas after the painting process. These fervid paintings readdressed mid-century painterly investigations of gravity and the flatbed picture plane, but unlike his predecessors' radical experiments where the paint or repurposed objects equaled the sum total of the work, Colen employed the spirited debris of the street—a flip-flop, a paint can, rags, string, bottles, a tire, and so on—as the means by which to move paint around on the canvas until they both—the tool and the medium—came to rest.

"Blowin' in the Wind" advances this investigation in three related groups of new work that were each once part of the process of the Trash paintings. The first uses pages from a nudie calendar; having fallen away from the surface of a Trash painting, here the remnant seductive pin-ups have been further manipulated with paint and pasted trash to create interplay between control, chaos, beauty and abjection. The second is a grouping of collages that use mismatched letters cut out of stained, smeared wrappers and packaging to spell out the word GOD—desperate, scurrying evocations of the supreme being and embodiment of ultimate faith. The third is a selection of readymade trash objects. Suspended from the wall, their proximate relationships deliver a striking aesthetic depth. A yellow mop bucket, a McDonald's food bag, and an umbrella handle indicate the mediating plane of the canvas where a canvas no longer exists. Commonplace items, which Colen initially used as mark-making tools in the Trash series, become autonomous fetishes alluding to formalist assemblage. The beauty of each object resides in the physical manifestations of history—torn, mangled, and flecked with paint. Thus Colen continues to cultivate the marriage of spectacle and pure chance in relation to the materiality of the readymade and Modernist object and its aesthetic transcendence.

Dan Colen was born in New Jersey in 1979. He graduated with a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2001. Exhibitions include the 2006 Whitney Biennial, New York; "USA Today," The Royal Academy, London (2006); "Defamation of Character," PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island, New York (2006); "Fantastic Politics," The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo (2006); "Skin Fruit: Selections from the Dakis Joannou Collection," The New Museum, New York (2010); "Peanuts," Astrup Fearnley (2011); and "In Living Color," the FLAG Art Foundation, New York (on view until May 19, 2012).
—BobDylan

Ο DanColen γεννήθηκε στο Νιου Τζέρσι το 1979. Πήρε πτυχίο ζωγραφικής από το Rhode Island School of Design το 2001. Στις εκθέσεις του συμπεριλαμβάνονται μεταξύ άλλων: Whitney Biennial το 2006 στη Νέα Υόρκη, USA Today, The Royal Academy, Λονδίνο (2006), Defamation of Character, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island, Νέα Υόρκη (2006), Fantastic Politics, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Όσλο (2006), Skin Fruit: Selections from the Dakis Joannou Collection, The New Museum, Νέα Υόρκη (2010), Peanuts, Astrup Fearnley (2011), και In Living Color, the FLAG Art Foundation, Νέα Υόρκη (ανοιχτή έως τις 19 Μαΐου 2012).

Roe Ethridge's Two Kittens with Yarn Ball (2017–22) on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Spring 2023

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2023

The Spring 2023 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Roe Ethridge’s Two Kittens with Yarn Ball (2017–22) on its cover.

Dan Colen, Mother (Intersection), 2021–22, oil on canvas, 59 × 151 inches (149.9 × 383.5 cm)

Dan Colen: Other Worlds Are Possible

In this interview, curator and artist K.O. Nnamdie speaks with artist Dan Colen about his recent show in New York: Lover, Lover, Lover. Colen delves into the concept of “home” as it relates to his work, specifically the Mother and Woodworker series. Thinking through the political and historical implications of “homeland” in the context of the artist’s relationship with Israel and America, the two consider the intersections between these paintings—the final group of his Disney-inspired canvases—and Colen’s work with Sky High Farm, New York.

Sky High Farm Symposium at Judd Foundation: The Art Panel

Sky High Farm Symposium at Judd Foundation: The Art Panel

In this video, Deana Haggag, program officer, Arts and Culture at Mellon Foundation; Dan Colen, artist and founder of Sky High Farm; Linda Goode Bryant, artist and founder of Project EATS; and Diya Vij, curator at Creative Time sit down together to explore the roles of artist and audience, place and accessibility, legacy, capital influence, and individual vs. collective agency as they relate to artmaking today.

Sky High Farm Symposium at Judd Foundation: The Community Panel

Sky High Farm Symposium at Judd Foundation: The Community Panel

In this video, Thelma Golden, chief curator and director of the Studio Museum in Harlem; Tremaine Emory, founder of Denim Tears and creative director of Supreme; Father Mike Lopez, founder of the Hungry Monk Rescue Truck; and artist Anicka Yi sit down to explore how the concept of community has shaped their work, and the power in seeing the places we live, our histories, and even our bodies as porous, interdependent, and alive.

Sky High Farm Symposium at Judd Foundation: The Land Panel

Sky High Farm Symposium at Judd Foundation: The Land Panel

In this video, Veronica Davidov, visual and environmental anthropologist; Karen Washington, activist, farmer and co-founder of Black Urban Growers (BUGS) and co-owner of Rise & Root Farm; Candice Hopkins, curator, writer and executive director of Forge Project; and Haley Mellin, artist, conservationist and founder of Art to Acres sit down to explore the tensions and overlaps between different efforts to define, use, and protect land.

Carrie Mae Weems’s The Louvre (2006), on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Summer 2021

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Summer 2021

The Summer 2021 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Carrie Mae Weems’s The Louvre (2006) on its cover.

News

Photo: Eric Piasecki

Artist Spotlight

Dan Colen

May 20–26, 2020

Moving between diverse styles and subjects, Dan Colen investigates the conceptual stakes of materiality and mark making. Alongside explorations in unconventional mediums including chewing gum, flowers, and metal studs, he continually returns to oil painting and representation, conducting an ever-evolving inquiry into the objecthood and authority of painting as a medium.

Photo: Eric Piasecki