No Me Dan Colen

 

Across these media Colen investigates our social need to stake claims: territorial, political, claims to identity, claims to belief, sometimes all of these at once.In an age when fame is more attainable than ever and making one's mark thus becomes the mass obsession (egged on by up-to-the-moment online and printed histories), Colen extracts and presents an index of the less visible, often impotent claims of the ordinary. Tripped over during our daily routine, graffiti instructing us to get high, lost kittens begging to be found, and doomsday placards struggle to make even a passing impact. Repositioned here, torn from any original semblance of context, these scrappy declarations offer the urban pastoral: idyllic with and without irony, both stolen and crafted.

 

What is the current condition of the aura? Looking at apparently spray painted text painstakingly redone in oil paint then turned upside-down, viewers go through a weirdly juvenile brain exercise before they can exclaim, "Holy Shit." An environment of paper maché monoliths evokes the sublime at the same time that it readily discloses its labored phoniness – right down to the last wad of counterfeit chewing gum, in memory of someone who was never here.

 

Dan Colen (b. 1979, New Jersey) lives and works in New York. Most recently Colen's work was included in the 2006 Whitney Biennial as well as solo presentations at Deitch Projects, New York, Gagosian Gallery, New York and Peres Projects, Los Angeles. Colen's work is included in several upcoming group exhibitions, including "USA Today", curated by Norman Rosenthal, The Royal Academy, London; "Defamation of Character", curated by Neville Wakefield, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York; and, "Fantastic Politics", curated by Andrea Kroksnes, The National Museum of Art, Architecture 

and Design, Oslo.