Oko Presents Works by Dan Colen, 5/15

Beginning May 15th, Oko is proud to present key selections from a new series of oil paintings by Dan Colen. The spirits that I called places the artist's most recent work in juxtaposition with that of a 19th century kindred spirit, in an exploration of the ways in which fantasy, theatricality and deliberate challenges to high culture standards have preoccupied artists across time.

The spirits that I called will remain on view at Oko through June 15th.

Dubbed "the Miracle paintings" by the artist and inspired in part by Walt Disney's celebrated 1940 animated film classic Fantasia, Dan Colen's latest canvases depict non-figurative and relatively empty landscapes that quote the movie's overwrought visual elements of magic and fantasy. These paintings are oriented around arcs of shimmering fairy dust - effects referred to by Colen as "miracles" - with trompe l'oeil surfaces achieved through suspension of dry pigments in viscous paint and varnish. "The Miracle paintings" result from a binary process: Colen attempts to control highly volatile pigments and liquid mediums on the canvas' surfaces while simultaneously allowing and even encouraging unintended or chance effects. The oscillating forces of control and chance in his process result in a type of painterly alchemy-positioning the viewer within an atmosphere of theatrical transformation. His canvases appear as hyper-real snapshots of the fantastic, tableaux that deploy paint not to reiterate what the eye sees but to ignite fantasies of what we would find if we could rupture the screen of representation and gain access to the magical.

With "the Miracle paintings", Colen has drawn inspiration from the background scenery typically found in 20th century hand-drawn and colored animation cells - masterfully rendered, extravagant images that nevertheless were relegated to the role of theatrical backdrops, influencing viewers' perceptions while their consciousness was otherwise engaged on the story taking place at the front of the picture plane. Colen's interest in this lush, arcane material expresses his deep affection for an art making technique that is rapidly disappearing in our current age of computer-generated imagery. His paintings at Oko ask us to open ourselves to parallel realities by focusing upon visual experiences that usually are rendered transparent by our intuitive attraction to foreground action.

In addition to the movie Fantasia, Colen's new works are indebted to Fairy Painting, a genre popularized in the mid-19th century by the Pre-Raphaelites. Known for its radical break with the formal and technical conventions of its era, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood eschewed academic precision and embraced the tenants of dramatic and literary theatricality. Seeking to escape 'progress' and rapidly accelerating industrialization, and rejecting photography's new claims of verisimilitude, the Pre-Raphaelites created works inspired by medieval folklore as well as drug-induced hallucinations and dreams. It is no accident that Fairy Painting coincided directly with the rise of Romantic ballet and its overheated stage productions; by virtue of its reliance upon both Romantic ballet's visually hedonistic scenery and melodramatic Shakespearian story lines as sources of inspiration, Pre-Raphaelite art was associated critically with the perceived cultural cheapness of theater. This notion of theatricality as an expression of low culture relates directly to Colen's very deliberate use of animation, a medium generally understood as craft rather than art. His embrace of magic as a key referent echoes the Pre-Raphaelites' sentimental attachment to fantasy and the supernatural, reinventing it in the present while paying homage.

The spirits that I called conflates the 19th century avant-garde Pre-Raphaelite subculture and its analog in the 21st century - a strain of contemporary pop culture that insists upon escapism and drug-fueled fantasy. The Oko exhibition juxtaposes two of Colen's "Miracle paintings" with an archetypal Fairy Painting by John Anster Fitzgerald titled 'Titania and Bottom: A Scene from a Midsummer-Night's Dream, painted in the years between 1848-1851. While not considered a primary member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Fitzgerald was a pre-eminent Fairy painter, often producing works that joined Shakespearian style drama with the sorts of grotesque monsters that populated the fevered dreams of 19th century laudanum addicts.

In an exhibition that explores the hierarchical organization of culture, both Dan Colen and John Anster Fitzgerald open paths to psychic escape through fantasy while celebrating the conceptual and visual experiences inherent to art forms that are rendered obsolete by technology.

Oko is open to the public Thursday through Saturday, from 12PM - 6PM and by appointment. www.okooko.org