Art Talk! - Dan Colen - Part 1

SEE EPISODE 2 & 3 - http://www.vbs.tv/player.php?bctid=13...

Dan Colen first appeared in the pages of Vice magazine in many photos by longtime friend and roommate Ryan McGinley. One notorious photograph is called "Dan, Dusted," which shows a freaked-out, naked, graffiti-covered Dan on a roof at dawn after having smoked angel dust all night. Then we wrote about him again in 2004 in an article about "hamster nests," a fun little thing that he and fellow artist Dash Snow used to do where they'd go to a hotel room, shred up a ton of telephone books, get superwasted, and, you know, act like hamsters. They recently did a hamster nest installation at Deitch Gallery in New York.

Dan is infamous for his "wild lifestyle" or whatever, but fuck that. His art is awesome. He takes abject things and makes them beautiful, like canvases of bird shit and chewed-up gum that look like abstract paintings, and dumb slogans ("Holy Shit," "Rama Lama Ding-Dong") messily spray-painted on wood boards. For the 2006 Whitney Biennial he showed giant sculptures of rocks covered in graffiti and gum and bird shit that look like something you'd see in the woods after a bunch of teenagers had a crazy party there. And for a show at the prestigious Gagosian gallery, he displayed five found thrift-store paintings in the gallery's five bathrooms. The paintings were altered or defaced with funny, dirty-joke additions, like in a painting with a girl swimming in a lake, he added in a guy spying on her from behind a tree and jerking off. He's a clever one, and we're really into his art. He's also reeeeeeally tall.

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[antonl3]

I know this guy he is a coke freak

[Schopenhauerstrasse]

Call a spade a spade - that shit is pure kitsch.

People buy it because they can sell it the following year for a profit.

[hideouschud]

BLOW ME!

[hideouschud]

Blow Me?... Sounds about right...

[hideouschud]

CUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!!!

[deejayhart]

His compadre Dash Snow died of a drug overdose. Dan Colen is plainly a cokehead and the art is bullshit - I saw his effort at this year's FRIEZE - typical cliche text painting like Ruscha without the humour.

[tiesthijsthejs]

I have no idea what is particularly 'anthropological' about this interview or this guy...buzzword?

[Bmurphysart]

This guy does have some talent but lets be for real at what point does an artist like this gain success in the art world when there a millions of excellent artist out there.He said himself that he isnt a good painter.He copied a candle explain this to me please?What makes an artist like this gain success?I guess VBSstands for video bull shit..Because that what the art world is...Nothing but BS

[thornbird7556]

He seems entirely unenthusiastic about his work. That's how you can spot a fraud.

[mower2009]

he said "like" 36 times....

wow... i have too much time on my hands....

[rwm89]

@AtillaTheSunn i agree. nate lowman is exactly the same, they have both been brought to fame through knowing certain people. It's so frustrating as an artist, to have to listen to these peoples bullshit explanation of their art. Have you watched the Interview magazine video with nate lowman on here? he talks about his new smiley face project and his reason behind it is that he likes how people put smiley faces next to their name and the 'psychosis' behind it. Soooo frustrating!

[AtillaTheSunn]

move on from the basketball and talk about your art, and not just the surface level shit, that's baby-talk. Intelligence comes from concept. If you can't verbalize your own then your really up shit's creek, superficiality only lasts for so long....