I was lucky enough to go visit Dan Bina’s studio (whom I represent) this past warm Sunday evening, and, of course, it was a fabulous time. He has lovingly devoted an entire room of his Brooklyn apartment to be his studio. It’s currently overflowing with canvases—those completed and those still in progress. There is debris made up of cutouts from 1950’s and 60’s magazines spread across his desk: images of everything from birds to former presidential portraits; along with the usual paints and brushes. Dan’s talent lies in his exceptional technique. By looking at these finished works you know that his initial drawings must have been dynamically detailed and zealously worked out until he was satisfied.
Dan’s most well known for his abstract work, but this visit gave me an opportunity to finally see his realist works, like America the Beautiful: V- Twin. That, like most of his photorealistic work, is in black and white. His technique lends a foggy dream-like quality to the works, which almost makes you think you’re looking at someone else’s hazy memory of a bygone era. He actually uses images of nostalgia quite often in his works of collage as well. New collage works like, Goodbye Astroland, pique my interest in what he’ll create next with this new media. Layering pages of magazine cutouts, he creates magical fantasy creatures that easily make any viewer look at least twice, as seen in, Bird People Vacation Too. Conversely, The Lesson Plan, and a few other collage works seem to pronounce stern commentary of the politics of the era itself. Whether Dan is working to create a playful or more serious message, that message always reads as a bit acerbic and probes the viewer to question the contradictions in his or her own experience.
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