Eighteen is pleased to present
New Being
A solo exhibition by Dan Flanagan
OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY JUNE 2. 2023. TIME: 16.00 - 21.00
EXHIBITION PERIOD: JUNE 3. – AUGUST 12. 2023.
Please note the gallery is closed for holidays July 9 – July 31.
Intuitively visually engaging. Vivid. A dance between abstraction and figuration. Connotations appearing and disappearing, like skies transitioning in and out of awareness. Lines, gestures and marks laid bare. A transparent history of creation. Layers upon layers of paint. Dense lakes of oil paint, frenetic lines and subtle scribbles. Bold gestures flanking open suggestions. Traces of movement in and on the canvas, hands and feet, indicating body reach. Velocity, gravity and intention shaping transient compositions, evolving with the eye and mind of the beholder. Vibrating. Shape shifting. Dan Flanagan’s paintings are radiant entities.
”I’m interested in the “uncanniness” or life or “being-ness” of a painting, unique to the medium, the painting becomes irreducible and more than the sum of its parts. Where all the decisions and processes that went into its creation give way to something more than just an image, but embody a presence, a being, an image that is unfixed, lasting and itself alive. I’m interested in the legacy of abstract expressionism, as well as the energy and boldness of children’s drawings, the frenetic and unconscious quality, where the artists psychological impulse submits to feeling and intuition. For me painting is about feeling, not preconceived ideas or tradition. Its forms are inherently spiritual, and it seems to me foolish and arrogant to pretend to have control over these forces. It can be appreciated after the fact but there is no reproducible formula to get there.”
”These paintings are a reformation of my environment, they reflect the disorder and chaos of gritty industrial Brooklyn, into something with an organic soul and flavor. They are influenced by grass roots art like graffiti and freestyle/wildstyle, in general art that comes seemingly from necessity rather than traditional formula. More than graffiti itself, which I did when I was young, I’m interested in the aesthetic of overlapping and haphazard mark making, unlocking new images. Some of my inluences are; Van Gogh and his writing, CoBrA, Dekooning and Joan Mitchell. My visit to the Prado when I was 15 years old, -Goya and Rogier Van der Weyden were huge. I met the late Susan Rothenberg (American artist 1945-2020) four years ago, she implored me to paint from my heart.”
- Dan Flanagan, Brooklyn, USA, May, 2023
New Being consists of seven mixed media; oil-, acrylic-, spray-paint, and graphite paintings on canvas and vinyl tarp, measuring 213 x 183 cm each. Seven meditative portals to new ways of seeing and being.
Dan Flanagan, born 1983, Madison, WI, USA, lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, USA. Flanagan holds a BFA from Kansas City Art Institute, MO, USA, and has previously studied at the New York Studio School, New York, NY, USA. Ongoing and previous exhibitions include Good Spirits, Harper’s, East Hampton, NY, USA, 2003, Ash of a Flame That Burns Well, Harper’s, Los Angeles, 2022, CA, Everything Is a Lot of Things, Harper’s, New York, NY, 2021, Supper, and Deli-Grocery Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, USA, 2019. New Being is Dan Flanagan’s first solo exhibition in Europe.
