Harper’s is pleased to present Good Spirits, Dan Flanagan’s third solo exhibition with the gallery and his first in East Hampton. Flanagan's latest series merges luminous colors and dynamic gestures, transforming canvas, vinyl, and taffeta surfaces into captivating explosions. The exhibition opens Saturday, May 27, 5–8pm, with a reception attended by the artist.
Guided by a process-driven methodology, Flanagan embraces contemplative and spiritual dimensions in his work, allowing intuition to shape the creation of each piece. In Good Spirits, he explores an array of media and tools, uncovering a distinctive artistic vocabulary. From the demonstrative potential of spray paint, oils, and acrylics to the precise control of markers, pens, and pencils, every color and texture plays a vital role in his compositions.
Alongside traditional canvas, unconventional mediums like repurposed vinyl billboards and nylon taffeta find expression within his work. Using a sheet of pastel pink taffeta for New Being, the substrate allows his energetic painterly marks to take on new characteristics as they rest atop the crisp, smooth surface. The pigments slightly sink into the unprimed fibers, producing an illusion of depth while the sheen of the surrounding field emits a rosy glow. For Flanagan, these materials lend themselves well to a process of building images quickly and with intensity, while lending their own particular qualities to the finished image.
Beyond the surface, Flanagan's large-scale paintings offer an immersive experience that taps into contemplative modes of creating and viewing. The unfiltered and expressive compositions, and the residual marks and traces, all coalesce into an evocative visual language that are motivated by an intuitive approach. His variegated compositions and rich details arouse numerous moments for the viewer to get lost in, much in the same way that the artist loses the sense of time as he engages in his work. Flanagan seeks to allow improvisational movements and spontaneous gestures to dominate his practice, releasing himself from the inhibitions and fussy nature of predetermined plans. Such techniques forge a space that focuses on the timeless nature of the present and visualizes its ceaseless flux.
Dan Flanagan (b. 1983, Madison, WI) studied at the New York Studio School prior to receiving a BFA from Kansas City Art Institute in 2008. Most recently, his work has been exhibited at Harper’s, New York, Los Angeles, and East Hampton (2022 and 2021); EXPO Chicago, online (2021); Mulherin Toronto, ON (2019); BBQLA, Los Angeles (2019 and 2017); and Marvin Gardens, Ridgewood, NY (2018). Flanagan lives and works in Brooklyn.