Dan Colen
Dan Colen
Daniel Colenis an artist based in New York. His work consists of painted sculptures appropriating low-cultural ephemera, graffiti-inspired paintings of text executed in paint, and installations...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSculptor
Date of Birth3 December 1979
CountryUnited States of America
barrier complex destroying high hope work
A lot of my work is about equalizing things and kind of destroying any barrier between what's high and low, or what's deep or what's shallow, complex or simple. I hope I'm ever-changing.
possess
I've always been interested in moments of disbelief... I don't know if they possess any magic, but they do have something.
bodies work
The different bodies of my work end themselves when there's no more discovery to be had.
energy far knew love next painting pick scared somebody three
Love is important. I didn't have the energy to be giving it to somebody else in a way that they deserved, and I knew that. So I've always been scared to go too far with somebody I care for because I knew there would come a day when I'd need to pick up and finish a painting for the next three months. That day is inevitable.
family nature takes
It takes a lot of help - nature, friends, family, craftsmen - for me to make what I make.
abstract dip line painting using watching work
A lot of my work is about what's abstract and what's pictorial. Is it bubblegum, or is it an abstract painting using bubblegum? The energy comes from walking that line and watching things dip this way and that.
allow image opposed paint putting scene wants
As opposed to putting too much confidence in myself, or in an image or a scene or a set of brushes, I really want to allow the oil paint to perform, to show me the things that it wants to do, beyond my imagination.
hope
At the end of the day, you can't have a vision; you have to have a hope. This is where the miracle comes in.
high trying
I'm trying to equalise the world to say there is no high and low.
soul energy spirit
A lot of my work involves instilling objects with the power of touch - a transference of soul, spirit, energy through actions.
miracle vision the-end-of-the-day
At the end of the day, you cant have a vision; you have to have a hope. This is where the miracle comes in.
successful want fame
Its such a paradox. You come from this place where you want fame; you dont want to be bourgeois, but you want to be successful. You want to be accepted, but you also want to be going against the grain. You want to be on the outside, but you want to be on the inside.
spiritual eye thinking
I think that artworks are like these spiritual objects: I think that they have energies and powers beyond what the eye can see.