'Dan Colen: Sweet Liberty' at Newport Street Gallery

‘Sweet Liberty’, Dan Colen’s first major solo show in London, is on view at Newport Street Gallery through 21 January, 2017. The exhibition surveys the entirety of the artist’s career to date and also features new paintings and large-scale installations.

‘Sweet Liberty’ spans a period of seismic change in US history: the earliest painting in the show, Me, Jesus and the Children (2001–2003), was begun days after the 9/11 attacks, whilst the newest exhibited pieces were made in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. Colen’s influences range from early modern religious painting to Arte Povera, Abstract Expressionism and Pop.

A significant collection of the artist’s Board works, in which slogans and phrases are seemingly spontaneously spray-painted, as well as paintings from Colen’s newest series, Viscera, also feature in ‘Sweet Liberty’. Conceived as details of rainbows, Viscera (2016) and Viscera (2016–2017) bear countless layers of unadulterated pigment in fractionally different shades, which combine to create dense hues.

The presence of Colen’s extraordinary 2012–2013 installation, Livin and Dyin, is felt throughout the exhibition, in negative spaces punched aggressively through the gallery walls that expose the underlying brickwork.

When Livin and Dyin finally reaches its denouement, it does so in the collapsed shapes of the cartoon figures of Wile E. Coyote, Kool-Aid Man and Roger Rabbit, as well as a life-size sculpture of the naked artist himself. Colen considers the all-American, male characters to be self-portraits of sorts.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, with texts by Hugh Allan, Francesco Bonami, Blair Hansen and an interview between the artist and Ali Subotnick. In conjunction with the exhibition, Colen will present a live performance of Livin and Dyin during Frieze week.

Learn more about the exhibition, on view at Newport Street Gallery

Learn more about Dan Colen