Dan Colen pushes the boundary between high and low art by creating provocative works that allude to the accumulative process of time and the idiosyncrasy of artifice. Works like Barking Irons translate the gestural energy and carefully controlled chaos that characterize the canvases of the Gutai group or Abstract Expressionists into piles, globs, and skeins of multicolored chewing gum. They are also complex interpretations of Colen’s desire to make “unpretentious abstract paintings” and explore the possibilities of this unlikeliest of mediums to its fullest potential. “Maybe they are as tied to Britney Spears and Bart Simpson and general teen flippancy as they are to Jackson Pollock,” Colen admits.  However, in their purest form, these works stand as “pictures of the marks that gum makes.” He has remarked, “I like how these materials take some control away from me, allowing for a more uncertain future and yet a more finished piece.”

Label from Dan Colen: Shake the Elbow, June 13–October 18, 2015