Past Exhibition
- Dan Colen
Help!
Greenwich May 1st to October 1st, 2014
DAN COLEN
HELP!
The Brant Foundation Art Study Center is pleased to announce Help!, an exhibition of work by Dan Colen opening Sunday May 11, 2014. Help! traces a decade of Colen’s work, beginning with his first major sculpture, Secrets and Cymbals, Smoke and Scissors (My Friend Dash’s Wall in the Future) (2004) and continuing through new site-specific pieces conceived specifically for the Foundation. The exhibition continues the Foundation’s commitment to presenting major solo exhibitions for artists who have made singular contributions to the development of contemporary art. Peter Brant has been a major supporter of Colen throughout his career, and the artist is well represented in the Foundation’s collection.
One new piece, At Least They Died Together (after Dash) (2013-14), is an outdoor sculpture that will turn the pristine polo field that the Brant Foundation sits on into an installation site for two salvaged 14-foot New York City box trucks. The trucks will be planted nose-down with their cabs submerged in the ground like root systems stabilizing the two cuboids left visible. The roll gates, positioned at the tops of the trucks, will be left open to the sky, allowing rainwater, dirt and wildlife to accumulate and camp within.
The title At Least They Died Together refers to a collage given to Colen by his friend and peer, Dash Snow, who died in 2009. Snow’s impact on both Colen and their shared New York landscape can be felt throughout the Brant Foundation exhibition. On view for the first time in seven years, Secrets and Cymbals, Smoke and Scissors (My Friend Dash’s Wall in the Future) is a to-scale, three dimensional trompe l’oeil painted rendering of a heavily collaged wall from Snow’s East Village apartment. Colen and Snow were well known for their “hamster nests”—nightlong hotel room actions involving reams of shredded telephone book paper, alcohol, narcotics, down feather filling, and other found materials. The private hamster nests eventually culminated in the artists’ iconic 2007 “NEST” collaborative exhibition at Deitch Projects and will be represented in Help! with Snow’s video The End is Near (2005).
There is a direct connection between these literal depictions of Colen and Snow’s time together and much of the work Colen has produced in the years following Snow’s death, such as his confetti painting series. Like the shredded paper and feathers kicked up during the nest experiences, the image of confetti suspended in the air evokes celebration. And yet, rendered in oil paint, the confetti becomes abstracted, in some cases losing any sense of its original form and raising questions about whether it is possible to preserve elation or whether efforts to do so depict, in the end, something closer to loss.
This dichotomy between control and surrender is central to Colen’s practice. A shift occurs as his work progresses past early trompe l’oeil pieces and begins (with the gum painting series) to employ “real,” everyday material in addition to traditional art material. Colen breaks apart the canonical painter’s approach to mimesis and instead presents his finished works in terms of their accreted component marks – marks made using oil paint, graphite, chewing gum, artificially dyed flowers, dimes, trash and live birds. Colen tracks the overall perceptual experience of a work by these elemental events, be they carefully manufactured by the artist or simply allowed to unfold according to the character of a given material. “I’m trying to make artworks that are specifically about the fragility of a moment,” says Colen about his practice as a whole, “works that try to pin down the energy from that moment and ask questions about what happens to that energy over time and what it reflects back on the viewer.”
Programs and Events:
Dan Colen Exhibition Announcement
Dan Colen: Help! Exhibition Opening
Dan Colen: Help! Exhibition Catalogue
The Brant Foundation Lecture Series: Peter Brant and Dan Colen in Conversation with Mark Tribe
Dan Colen Brings A Downtown Aesthetic To The Brant Foundation
Artist Biography
Dan Colen
Dan Colen was born in 1979 in New Jersey.
From the outset, Dan Colen’s paintings continually investigate: 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.”
He received his B.F.A. in 2001 from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence. Recent solo exhibitions include “Peanuts,” Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Norway (2011); “In Living Color,” FLAG Art Foundation, New York (2012); “The Illusion of Life,” Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Scotland (2013); “Help!,” The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Connecticut (2014); “The L…o…n…g Count,” The Walter De Maria Building, New York (2014); “Psychic Slayer,” HEART—Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark (2015); and “Oil Painting,” Dallas Contemporary, Texas (2016). His work is featured in several public collections including The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Dakis Joannou Collection, Athens; de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space, Miami; Jimenez–Colon Collection, Puerto Rico; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
The Brant Foundation Loan Program: Dan Colen – Oil Painting
The Brant Foundation Loan Program: Ryan McGinley – The Kids Were Alright
SOLO
| 2016 |
Dan Colen: When I’m Gone. Gagosian Gallery, Hong Kong.Dan Colen: Oil Painting. Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, TX. |
| 2015 |
Dan Colen: Shake the Elbow. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY.Dan Colen—Viscera. Venus Over Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.Dan Colen. And Now, Dallas, TX.Dan Colen: Psychic Slayer. HEART—Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning, Denmark. |
| 2014 |
The L...o...n...g Count. The Walter De Maria Building, New York, NY.Dan Colen: Miracle Paintings. Gagosian Gallery, W. 24th Street, New York, NY.Help! The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Greenwich, CT. |
| 2013 |
Dan Colen: The Illusion of Life. Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh,Scotland.Dan Colen: The spirits that I called. Oko, New York, NY. |
| 2012 |
Out of the Blue, Into the Black. Gagosian Gallery, Paris, France. Cracks in the Clouds, Seagram Building, New York, NY.Blowin’ in the Wind. Gagosian Gallery, Athens, Greece. Blowin’ in the Wind. Karma, New York, NY.In Living Color. FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY. |
| 2011 |
Trash. Gagosian Gallery, Rome, Italy.Oh God! Massimo de Carlo, Palazzo Rospigliosi, Rome, Italy.Come Out, Come Out, Wherever you are. Carlson Gallery, London, England.Peanuts. Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway. |
| 2010 |
Dan Colen. Gagosian Gallery, West 24th Street, New York, NY.Karma. Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milano, Italy. |
| 2009 |
Dan Colen, An Allegory Of Faith... Gagosian Gallery, Davies Street, London, England. |
| 2008 |
Dan Colen, I live There... Gagosian Gallery, Davies Street, London, England. |
| 2006 |
Dan Colen. Peres Projects, Los Angeles, California.Potty Mouth, Potty War, Pot Roast, Pot is a Reality Kick. Gagosian Gallery, West 24th Street, New York, NY.Secrets and Cymbals, Smoke and Scissors (My Friend Dash’s Wall in the future). Deitch Projects, New York, NY.NO ME. Peres Projects, Berlin, Germany. |
| 2003 |
Seven Days Always Seemed Like A Bit Of An Exaggeration. Rivington Arms, NewYork, NY. |
GROUP
| 2016 |
Enzo Cucchi Tano Festa Dan Colen. The National Exemplar, New York, NY. After Effect. Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX. |
| 2015 |
Popular Images. Karma, New York, NY. The Rainbow Serpent. Gagosian Gallery, Athens, Greece. First Show / Last Show. 190 Bowery, New York, NY. |
| 2014 |
One Way: Peter Marino. Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL. Le Jardin Décomposé / Decomposed Garden. Gagosian Gallery, Le Bourget, Paris, France. Broadway Morey Boogie. Montefiore Square, presented by Marlborough Chelsea, New York, NY. Alter/Abolish/Address. 5x5: 2014, Washington, D.C. CLEAR. Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA. |
| 2013 |
Confronti – Enrico Castellani, Dan Colen, Dadamaino, Piotr Uklanski. GAMeC – Galleria The Show is Over. Gagosian Gallery, Britannia Street, London, England. Meanwhile... Suddenly and Then. 12th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France. |
| 2012 |
Joe Bradley and Dan Colen: Epiphany. Gavin Brown Enterprises, New York, NY. Holy Crap! The Fireplace Project, East Hampton, NY. |
| 2011 |
Grisaille Part II. Luxembourg & Dayan, New York, NY. OH! Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris, France. Grisaille Part I. Luxembourg and Dayan, London, England. Ray's a Laugh. Half Gallery, New York, NY. Invitation to the Voyage. Algus Greenspon, New York, NY. Love Roses. National Exemplar Gallery, New York, NY. George Herms: Xenophilia (Love of the Unknown). Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA. Post 9-11. OH WOW, Los Angeles, CA. The Art of Wit. Paddle 8, New York, NY. New York Minute. Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia. Unpainted Paintings. Luxembourg and Dayan, New York, NY. Don't Do It Etc. Galerie Bruno Bischofberger AG, Zurich, Switzerland. |
| 2010 |
Skin Fruit: Selections from the Dakis Joannou Collection. Curated by Jeff Koons.The New Museum, New York, NY. Art Cologne. Peres Projects Cologne, Berlin, Germany. |
| 2009 |
New York Minute. Curated by Kathy Grayson. Macro Future Museum, Roma, Italy. Minneapolis. Peres Projects, Los Angeles, CA. Abstract America: New Painting and Sculpture. Saatchi Gallery, London, England. Slough. David Nolan Gallery, New York, NY. The Living & the Dead. Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, NY. |
| 2008 |
Wet Pain, Step Brother. Palazzo Gallery, Brescia, Italy. The Unforgiven. Stellan Holm Gallery, New York, NY. Substraction. Deitch Projects, New York, NY. Sack of Bones. Asia Song Society, New York, NY. Meet Me Around the Corner - Works from the Astrup Fearnley Collection. Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway. Closing Down Sale. Michelle Maccarone, New York, NY. |
| 2007 |
Unholy Truth. Initial Access, Manchester, England. Sweet Bird of Youth. Curated by Heidi Slimane. Arndt & Partner, Zurigo. Pop art is, Gagosian Gallery, London, England. Nest. Deitch Projects, New York, NY. Last Attraction Next Exit. Curated by Neville Wakefield. Max Wigram Gallery, London, Generation. Art Gallery of Alberta, Canada. Fractured Figure - Works from the Dakis Joannou Collection. Curated by Jeffrey Deitch. Deste Foundation Centre For Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece Beyond Zero. Peres Projects, Athens, Greece. Beneath the Underdog. Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY. Absent Without Leave. Victoria Miro Gallery, London, England. USA Today. Royal Academy, London. |
| 2006 |
Whitney Biennial 2006: Day for Night. Curated by Chrissie Iles & Philippe Vergne. The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. Defamation of Character. Curated by Neville Wakefield. PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY. Infinite Painting. Curated by Francesco Bonami. Villa Manin-Centre for Contemporary Art, Passariane, Cedreipe, Italy. Mid-Life Crisis. Curated by Ivana Salander and Tara Subkoff. Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York, NY. Axis of Praxis. Curated by Nate Lowman. Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis, MN. Infinite Painting. curated by Francesco Bonami and Sarah Cosulich Canarutto. Villa Manin-Centre for Contemporary Art, Passariano, Codroipo. Fantastic Politics—Art in Times of Crisis. National Museum for Art, Architecture & Design, Oslo, Norway. Survivor (organized by David Rimanelli). Bortolami Dayan, New York, NY. |
| 2005 |
Interstate. Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York, NY. Bridge Freezes Before Road. Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY. The Armory Show. Curated by Neville Wakefield. Peres Projects, New York, NY. |
| 2004 |
Art Works for Hard Money. Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, NY. Art Basel Miami. Peres Projects, Miami, FL. |
| 2003 |
New York. Galerie du Jour, Paris, France. 40 Views of an Icon. Comme de Garcons. |
| 2002 |
First Show. Rivington Arms, New York, NY. |
There is a direct connection between these literal depictions of Colen and Snow’s time together and much of the work Colen has produced in the years following Snow’s death, such as his confetti painting series. Like the shredded paper and feathers kicked up during the nest experiences, the image of confetti suspended in the air evokes celebration. And yet, rendered in oil paint, the confetti becomes abstracted, in some cases losing any sense of its original form and raising questions about whether it is possible to preserve elation or whether efforts to do so depict, in the end, something closer to loss. This dichotomy between control and surrender is central to Colen’s practice. A shift occurs as his work progresses past early trompe l’oeil pieces and begins (with the gum painting series) to employ “real,” everyday material in addition to traditional art material. Colen breaks apart the canonical painter’s approach to mimesis and instead presents his finished works in terms of their accreted component marks – marks made using oil paint, graphite, chewing gum, artificially dyed flowers, dimes, trash and live birds. Colen tracks the overall perceptual experience of a work by these elemental events, be they carefully manufactured by the artist or simply allowed to unfold according to the character of a given material. “I’m trying to make artworks that are specifically about the fragility of a moment,” says Colen about his practice as a whole, “works that try to pin down the energy from that moment and ask questions about what happens to that energy over time and what it reflects back on the viewer.”
At Least They Died Together (After Dash), consists of a pair of box trucks turned on their ends and buried in the Brant Foundation’s manicured polo field. Colen says he took the title from a collage Snow, who died of a heroin overdose in 2009, gave him. “At its original point of conception, I don’t think he was at the forefront of my mind,” he says. “Losing him really gave me an intimacy with death that I hadn’t had before, like literally in my own life, I came really close to the precipice myself. The sculpture, for me at least, provokes this thought, ‘is it a burial or is it like a planting?’ ‘Is life going to grow out of them, or more of a monument?’
– Dan Colen (The New York Times Style Magazine, May 8, 2014)