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Dan Colen

HELP

February 26–April 4, 2020
Park & 75, New York

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Installation video

Installation view Artwork © Dan Colen. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Dan Colen. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Dan Colen. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Dan Colen. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Dan Colen. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Dan Colen. Photo: Rob McKeever

Works Exhibited

Dan Colen, HELP, 2019–20 Oil on canvas, 28 × 46 ½ inches (71.1 × 118.1 cm)© Dan Colen. Photo: Rob McKeever

Dan Colen, HELP, 2019–20

Oil on canvas, 28 × 46 ½ inches (71.1 × 118.1 cm)
© Dan Colen. Photo: Rob McKeever

Dan Colen, HELP, 2019–20 Oil on canvas, 28 × 46 ½ inches (71.1 × 118.1 cm)© Dan Colen. Photo: Rob McKeever

Dan Colen, HELP, 2019–20

Oil on canvas, 28 × 46 ½ inches (71.1 × 118.1 cm)
© Dan Colen. Photo: Rob McKeever

Dan Colen, HELP, 2019–20 Oil on canvas, 18 × 30 inches (45.7 × 76.2 cm)© Dan Colen. Photo: Rob McKeever

Dan Colen, HELP, 2019–20

Oil on canvas, 18 × 30 inches (45.7 × 76.2 cm)
© Dan Colen. Photo: Rob McKeever

Dan Colen, HELP, 2019–20 Oil on canvas, 18 × 30 inches (45.7 × 76.2 cm)© Dan Colen. Photo: Rob McKeever

Dan Colen, HELP, 2019–20

Oil on canvas, 18 × 30 inches (45.7 × 76.2 cm)
© Dan Colen. Photo: Rob McKeever

About

I’m interested in the fragility of the moment. When painting, each brushstroke is an opportunity to consider and preserve that moment. Each mark is a decision, from the moment the brush collides with the canvas, and each one can go in so many different directions.
—Dan Colen

Gagosian is pleased to present HELP, an exhibition of new paintings by Dan Colen.

Moving between diverse styles and subjects, Colen investigates the conceptual stakes of materiality and mark making. In his earliest paintings, elements of the supernatural intrude into naturalistic renderings of interior spaces, while his more recent canvases explore the technical, physical, and thematic limits of the medium itself. Colen has often worked with unconventional materials such as chewing gum, soil, and trash, relinquishing control of his work’s final appearance to their unpredictable surfaces. Nevertheless, representational imagery has remained a through line across his oeuvre, allowing him to conduct an ever-evolving inquiry into the objecthood and authority of painting as a medium.

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

Dan Colen: High Noon (New York: Gagosian, 2020)

Book Signing

Dan Colen
High Noon

Saturday, March 7, 2020, 3–4pm
Gagosian Shop, New York

Gagosian will host a book signing with Dan Colen to celebrate the publication of High Noon, an exhibition catalogue of his Desert Paintings (2015–19), exhibited at Gagosian, Beverly Hills, in 2018. These large-scale paintings are lush yet schematic interpretations of the arid landscapes from Chuck Jones’s animated shorts featuring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. The volume also documents two new performances, At Least They Died Together and Carry On Cowboy (both 2018). To attend the free event, RSVP to colenrsvp@gagosian.com.

Download the full press release (PDF)

Dan Colen: High Noon (New York: Gagosian, 2020)