DAN COLEN

Mother (Wintertown)
Born in New Jersey, USA in 1979, graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2001. Along with artists like Ryan McGinley and Dash Snow, Colen has attracted attention as an artist driving the New York art scene post-9/11. With a variety of forms from sculpture to painting and installation, Colen is known for his extremely broad range of works. In particular, the diverse range of his paintings is figurative, literal, abstract, and conceptual, making it difficult to grasp their essence. Notable series include abstract paintings imitating bird droppings and the “Candle Painting” series inspired by the Disney movie “Pinocchio.” Colen’s field of activity is diverse as well. Apart from art, he has established Sky High Farm, a non-profit farm on the outskirts of New York, in which all produced crops and meat are donated to food banks and charities. In addition to the museum solo exhibitions at HEART-Herning Museum of Contemporary Art (Denmark) in 2015 and the Dallas Contemporary in 2016, Colen has also been recognized since his early career by major figures in the art industry such as Gagosian, Jeffrey Deitch in New York, and Saatchi in London, holding numerous exhibitions at top galleries. His work has been featured in international exhibitions including the 2006 Whitney Biennial and the 12th Lyon Biennale in 2013. His works are also held in public institutions such as the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington D.C.), Whitney Museum of American Art (NY), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), the HEART-Herning Museum of Contemporary Art (Denmark), and other private collections worldwide.
<a href="http://www.ueshima-collection.com/en/artist-list/297" style="color:inherit">DAN COLEN</a>:Mother (Wintertown)
<a href="http://www.ueshima-collection.com/en/artist-list/297" style="color:inherit">DAN COLEN</a>:Mother (Wintertown)
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DAN COLEN
Mother (Wintertown)
Year: 2023
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 69.8 x 117.8 cm (27 1/2 x 46 3/8 in.)
Acquired from Gagosian, 2023
Colen has been working on the “Mother” series since 2008, primarily featuring works inspired by the background art of the movie “Bambi.” In his previous works, he has created many paintings using Disney movies as reference such as “Pinocchio” in the “Candle Painting” series and “Fantasia” in the “Miracles” series. By referencing the “background art” from animated films, Colen inherits the narrative quality of these films without the characters that form the core of the stories. In essence, he aims to use these images taken from existing animations as symbols in a pictorial sense. This work depicts a quiet residential neighborhood covered in snow. Light can be seen in the windows of the houses, but there are no human shadows. The composition of the painting is designed to draw all eyes to the single house in the center. This scenery would be recognized immediately by anyone familiar with it. It is the opening scene of the animated movie “Lady and the Tramp” which is also famous in Japan. In the movie, the imagery zooms in gradually on the house in the center with a voice singing for world peace. Near the warm window, a Christmas tree is decorated inside the house. Eventually, a gift with a ribbon that is placed under the tree is opened, revealing a dog inside as one of the main characters, marking the beginning of a joyful tale. This scene should have depicted some people outside the house, but Colen intentionally erased them, seemingly to emphasize the sense of loneliness. The title of this work is “Mother,” the movie tells the story of two dogs discovering their love for each other and forming a family. The single house depicted in the painting symbolizes something beyond loneliness, serving as a contemporary narrative picture.
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