Menu

Dan Colen

Miracle Paintings

September 2–October 18, 2014
555 West 24th Street, New York

Installation video Play Button

Installation video

Installation view, photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view, photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view, photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view, photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view, photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view, photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view, photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view, photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view, photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view, photo by Rob McKeever

Works Exhibited

Dan Colen, Ride of the Valkyries, 2013 Oil on canvas, 89 ½ × 119 inches (227.3 × 302.3 cm)

Dan Colen, Ride of the Valkyries, 2013

Oil on canvas, 89 ½ × 119 inches (227.3 × 302.3 cm)

Dan Colen, Te Deum, 2013 Oil on canvas, 89 ½ × 119 inches (227.3 × 302.3 cm)

Dan Colen, Te Deum, 2013

Oil on canvas, 89 ½ × 119 inches (227.3 × 302.3 cm)

Dan Colen, Rite of Spring, 2013 Oil and pigment powder on canvas, 105 × 85 inches (266.7 × 215.9 cm)

Dan Colen, Rite of Spring, 2013

Oil and pigment powder on canvas, 105 × 85 inches (266.7 × 215.9 cm)

Dan Colen, O Fortuna, 2013 Oil on canvas, 89 ½ × 119 inches (227.3 × 302.3 cm)

Dan Colen, O Fortuna, 2013

Oil on canvas, 89 ½ × 119 inches (227.3 × 302.3 cm)

About

I wanted these paintings to reveal themselves during the making, similar to how the trash paintings came to be. I was thinking about alchemy. So there's this juggling act; I'm starting and often ending with an image, but the oil paint and the process of using that oil paint will open up the possibility for the artwork to take a new direction.
—Dan Colen

Gagosian is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by Dan Colen.

The Miracle paintings continue an investigation that has been central to Colen's practice from the outset: to what extent does art come from the artist, and to what extent does it arise from forces independent of the artist? In his earliest paintings, Colen labored over precise oil renderings of banal interiors—a sloppy apartment bathroom, an adolescent bedroom, a camping tent—into which he introduced the presence of the supernatural—the Blue Fairy, Jesus Christ, twinkling cherubs, his deceased grandfather. He describes the subsequent series of Candle paintings as “portraits of God.” In these works, the space of the canvas contains the space of Geppetto's worktable—where Pinocchio transcends his materiality to become real—and a message appears in the smoke left by a just-extinguished candle flame.

In 2006, Colen started to make paintings with chewing gum instead of paint, ushering in a long period during which he traded representational subject matter for an exploration of the medium itself. Using flowers, dirt, grass, tar and feathers, Mylar confetti, street trash, and readymade metal studs, he relinquished his controlling approach to painting, instead allowing the final result to be guided in large part by the behavior of the given material. He commented that he found the loss of control exciting, as if the paintings were taking on "inevitable forms—almost like destined forms."

Read more

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