Dan Colen - Under the Influence New York Tuesday, March 8, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Peres Projects, Los Angeles/Berlin

  • Exhibited

    London, Victoria Miro Galley, Absent Without Leave, February 17 - March 17, 2007

  • Catalogue Essay

    “I have spent today installing my work in the gallery. I've made this large series of 62 canvases that I kind of threw paint at in different ways so they end up looking like they are made of bird shit. They vary in size, touch and colour. Some of them look like Pollocks, some look very realistic, others are painterly, some are dumb, some are elegant, some are beautiful.
    The last solo show that I did I put up sculptures of big boulders covered in spray paint, bubble gum and what looked like pigeon shit. Doing it straight on to a canvas this time around made it explode for me …What excites me is the idea of hypothetical pigeons being the performers, rather than me, so all the shit is the residue of their activity”
    (Colen quoted in "My paintings look like shit," The Guardian Art & Design Blog, February 16, 2007)

  • Artist Biography

    Dan Colen

    American • 1979

    American artist Dan Colen has spent most of his career asking himself questions about the editorial decisions artists have to make when creating a scene from scratch on canvas. In his early work, Colen painted mundane interiors punctuated with fantastical elements. This manifested as part of a growing curiosity in the ethereal or divine intervention.

    Colen subsequently stepped away from paint as material and started using found objects as mediums with which to paint. Among these, Colen has used chewing gum, street trash, confetti, feathers, flowers and dirt. This methodology allows Colen to abandon control and create in a more free-form, subconscious manner.

    View More Works

11

Untitled (Birdshit)

2007
Oil on canvas.
30 x 23 3/4 in. (76.2 x 60.3 cm).
Signed and dated "Dan Colen 2007" on the overlap.

Estimate
$35,000 - 45,000 

Sold for $74,500

Contact Specialist
Contact Bid Department +1 212 940 1228

Under the Influence

8 March 2011
New York