Art Review: Dan Colen's ‘Miracle Paintings’

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Roberta Smith

“Rite of Spring” (2013), a Colen “Miracle” painting.

NEW YORK---Dan Colen has dialed back the artistic swagger endemic to his 2010 debut with the Gagosian Gallery. Instead, Mr. Colen has confined himself to oil paint occasionally paired with dry pigment on relatively modest canvases. Irony is now obscured by a veneer of sincerity that can seem almost apologetic. The nine paintings suggest dilutions of quasi-abstract, expressionistic, visionary styles by a painter long dead and best forgotten. At best, they’re transitional indications that Mr. Colen is trying to reduce the role of vacuous skill and visual punning in his art and has more work to do. At worst, they’re forming a cautionary tale about young talent eaten alive by a multinational gallery, even while whistling all the way to the bank. Could be both. [link]

DAN COLEN
‘Miracle Paintings’
Gagosian Gallery
555 West 24th Street, Chelsea
Through Oct. 18