Dan Colen at Lévy Gorvy

May 31, 2017

Dominique Lévy and Brett Gorvy, partners of Lévy Gorvy gallery, are pleased to join Gagosian and Massimo de Carlo, Milan, in representing American artist Dan Colen (b. 1979, New Jersey).

In close collaboration with the artist, Lévy Gorvy will foster Colen’s work and its place within the broader discourse of contemporary art through curated exhibitions, publications, and commissioned scholarship and research. The gallery’s first exhibition with Colen will go on view in New York in 2018, featuring three new bodies of work that navigate the zone of indeterminacy between abstraction and representation.

Lévy Gorvy will also feature a major new painting by the artist, Purgatory (2017), in its booth at the upcoming Art Basel fair in Switzerland in June 2017.

Dominique Lévy commented: “Dan Colen is a leading figure of his generation of artists whose practice is deeply rooted in the history of painting. He challenges this heritage through an innovative approach to materiality, technique, and content that we find extraordinarily exciting. Dan is always determined to push the boundaries of painting as a medium, but his work also links painting to performance, theater, sculpture, and poetry. That approach makes him a natural fit for Lévy Gorvy, as our program incorporates all of these aspects of art. The gallery’s entire team is thrilled to engage the intellectual depth, inventiveness, and sense of commitment that are converging in Dan’s latest series.”

Brett Gorvy remarked: “Having followed Colen’s career for some years, I’ve always been impressed by its conceptual range and extraordinary breadth. At his studio, Dominique and I were struck by how the changing daylight seemed to transform his Purgatory paintings. His unique understanding of painting and his approach to surface convinced us that there is a very special opportunity to work with Dan in a way that makes both the formal rigor and art historical richness of his work—his sources of references range from Philip Guston to the Old Masters—visible. It’s incredibly exciting to open up this artist’s private explorations to a new and broader public.”

Learn more about Dan Colen

Image: Dan Colen, Purgatory, 2017, Oil on canvas, 89 1/2 x 119 inches (227.3 x 302.3 cm)