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Dan Colen

I live there...

November 27–December 17, 2008
Davies Street, London

"Dan Colen: I live there... Installation view"

"Dan Colen: I live there...

Installation view"

"Dan Colen: I live there... Installation view"

"Dan Colen: I live there...

Installation view"

"Dan Colen: I live there... Installation view"

"Dan Colen: I live there...

Installation view"

Works Exhibited

Dan Colen, Group II: Pollinating, 2008 Pencil on paper, 11 3/16 × 13 11/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (28.4 × 34.8 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group II: Pollinating, 2008

Pencil on paper, 11 3/16 × 13 11/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (28.4 × 34.8 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group II: Rain clouds (parade), 2008 Pencil on paper, 11 3/16 × 13 11/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (28.4 × 34.8 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group II: Rain clouds (parade), 2008

Pencil on paper, 11 3/16 × 13 11/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (28.4 × 34.8 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group II: Beginning, 2008 Pencil on paper, 11 3/16 × 13 11/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (28.4 × 34.8 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group II: Beginning, 2008

Pencil on paper, 11 3/16 × 13 11/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (28.4 × 34.8 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group II: Beginning, 2008 Pencil on paper, 11 3/16 × 13 11/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (28.4 × 34.8 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group II: Beginning, 2008

Pencil on paper, 11 3/16 × 13 11/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (28.4 × 34.8 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group VIII: No dice, 2008 Pencil on paper, 11 3/16 × 13 11/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (28.4 × 34.8 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group VIII: No dice, 2008

Pencil on paper, 11 3/16 × 13 11/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (28.4 × 34.8 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group VIII: In the shade, 2008 Pencil on paper, 13 11/16 11 3/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (34.8 × 28.4 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group VIII: In the shade, 2008

Pencil on paper, 13 11/16 11 3/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (34.8 × 28.4 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group VIII: Gone with the wind, 2008 Pencil on paper, 11 3/16 × 13 11/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (28.4 × 34.8 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group VIII: Gone with the wind, 2008

Pencil on paper, 11 3/16 × 13 11/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (28.4 × 34.8 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group VII: Will Smith (sideways), 2008 Pencil on paper, 11 3/16 × 13 11/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (28.4 × 34.8 × 3.5 cm)

Dan Colen, Group VII: Will Smith (sideways), 2008

Pencil on paper, 11 3/16 × 13 11/16 × 1 ⅜ inches framed (28.4 × 34.8 × 3.5 cm)

About

Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present Dan Colen's first solo exhibition in London.

The exhibition comprises three components of equal importance: The first is a group of cartoon drawings by a hired illustrator who refers to the notebooks that Colen has filled with art that he has made and wants to make, as well as declarations, common thought, and uncommon fantasy. The second is a large and detailed oil painting entitled An allegory of faith..., which depicts the bench in the woods where Walt Disney's Cinderella first meets her Fairy Godmother. The third is a printed booklet of snapshots taken by Colen in Central Park over the course of an afternoon, evening and night, that visitors to the exhibition can take away. The three exhibition components are connected by the otherworldly dark forest and a marked lack of human presence, which is underscored by the vitrine-like quality of the Davies Street storefront gallery.

Seen through the glass window, Colen's painting reflects on the still ardently debated issues raised by Modernist art critic and historian Michael Fried in his seminal studies, "Art and Objecthood" (1967) and Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot, 1980 – the threat posed to aesthetic experience by the "theatrical" materiality of the Minimalist object and, conversely, the theatricality produced by "a consciousness of viewing" at the expense of total aesthetic absorption. Colen's bench-painting, which maps a selective trompe l'oeil rendering of a received cartoon image onto the formalism of John McCracken's lacquered plank, limns the space between sculpture, painting, and pure illusion. In Colen's incarnation of Disney's animation, Cinderella has been removed (thus leaving space for the viewer's projection) leaving just the trail of magic dust that appears when the Fairy Godmother moves, metaphysically, in and out of space.

Colen draws equally from mass media, environmental experience and sub-cultural language, seeking to infuse the undervalued and overlooked with a sense of elegance and magic. An explorer of subterfuge and affect, he juggles immediacy of expression, perfection of surface, and slipperiness of meaning. Whether through painstaking reconstruction of 'what might have been' (such as expertly rendered papier maché sculptures that feign the casual monuments and sites on which popular culture inscribes its voices and traces; or covertly hand-crafted paintings that emulate the swagger and scrawl of delinquent graffiti) or its inverse (editing, subcontracting or simply stealing and transposing), Colen's self-conscious stance in the world invites viewers to share in unexpected moments of transcendence.

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