Dan Colen

Born in 1979 and raised in Leonia, New Jersey.^[1][2] His father, Sy Colen, a wood and clay sculptor, was a participant in the 2006 reality TV show Artstar. Colen attended Solomon Schechter Day School, and was raised Jewish.^[3] Colen graduated with a B.F.A. in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2001.^[4] After graduation he moved to the East Village in Manhattan, and by June 2006 he became a known artist.^[3]

In his work, Secrets and Cymbals, Smoke and Scissors: My Friend Dash's Wall in the Future (2004), Colen built an exact replica of a section of poster, photo and flyer-covered wall from friend Dash Snow's apartment.^[5] Each piece of visual material was handmade and attached to a Styrofoam copy of the wall.

In 2007, Dash Snow and Colen shredded phone books in Jeffrey Deitch's SoHo gallery for an installation called Nest or Hamster Nest.^[6][7] He was described by The Guardian as a "bad boy of post-pop New York".^[8]

Colen was close friends with artists Dash Snow and Ryan McGinley.^[9] When Snow died in 2009 of a heroin overdose, Colen was greatly impacted and said he was determined to end his own addiction.^[6][8]

• Potty Mouth, Potty War, Pot Roast, Pot is a Reality Kick, Gagosian Gallery, New York, 2006^[10]
• USA Today - new American Art from the Saatchi Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London^{[citation needed]}
• Whitney Biennial, New York, 2006^[11]
• Fantastic Politics, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo^{[citation needed]}
• No Me, Peres Projects, Berlin, 2006. Solo exhibition.^[12]
• Dan Colen – Works from the Astrup Fearnley Collection, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway, 2018. Solo exhibition.^[13]