Trash

Trash is the first book devoted to Dan Colen's paintings built from studio detritus — chewed gum, dirt, and refuse worked into the paint surface as both subject and material.

Published by Gagosian and Rizzoli in October 2014, the 302-page hardcover reproduces the series in full-page plates with close-up details that register the built-up texture of each surface. Colen has spoken of incorporating found and discarded material as a way of ceding some authorship to the object itself: gum wrappers, cigarette butts, and studio sweepings arrive with their own history embedded, functioning as active collaborators in the composition rather than raw pigment alone, registering what he has called real time and visceral experience directly on the canvas.

The book accompanies a body of work that extended Colen's long engagement with unconventional materials, following earlier series built from chewing gum, flowers, and confetti. A member of the generation of New York artists who emerged around the Bowery in the 2000s, Colen has continued to test how far from traditional painting materials a picture can travel while still functioning, formally, as one.