Dan Walsh

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Dan Walsh (b.1960, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a painter based in New York.

He studied at the Philadelphia College of Art in Pennsylvania and Hunter College in New York.

Walsh’s work has been shown internationally at galleries and museums including PS1 Contemporary Art Center [1], Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain [2] in Geneva, the Indianapolis Museum of Art [3], and The Royal Academy [4] in London. He is represented by Paula Cooper [5] in New York and Paolo Curti [6] in Milan.

Dan Walsh’s large-scale paintings draw from the tradition of Minimalism. Rendered by hand, Walsh’s geometric compositions waiver with faint imperfection. Seemingly straight edges subtly bow and warp with undulating movement, creating tessellated fields of disorientation. Reminiscent of Ad Reinhardt’s subliminal plaids or Sol LeWitt’s optical illusions, Walsh uses the multiplicity of ordered form to draft algorithmic blueprints. Through repetition, Walsh’s work suggests endless expansion, fluctuating between the intimate and infinite. Walsh uses perspectival deception to make his flat surfaces appear to advance and recede simultaneously, provoking alternating sensations of gravity and weightlessness.

Transgressing the Minimalist’s objective purity, Walsh’s paintings both envelop artistic tautology and reflect the contemporary experience of virtual reality. His grid-like compositions give subliminal suggestions of computer or television screens. However, his painstaking technique and hand-draw lines prize personal negotiation over synthetic precision. Walsh’s combination of brightly coloured tones and delicate wonkiness gives his work an underlying sense of play.