Dan Attoe

Dan Attoe’s paintings depict natural wonders—waterfalls, beaches, mountains, rocky cliffs, over-sized forests—populated by tiny figures spouting even tinier diaristic missives, painted in silver and culled from the artist's stream of consciousness. The miniature humans disrupt the grandeur of nature with their small stature and utterances. His drawings share the same concerns but inverted—the phrases and disconnected images are larger and often cartoonish, creating small-scaled narrative vignettes. Attoe makes a small drawing every day that he keeps for himself—slightly larger drawings and paintings expand upon this practice. John Motley observes in The Portland Oregonian, “Multiple drawing styles reinforce the varying perspectives on youth and childhood, from pure, storybook fantasy to a less-innocent complexity, where fear and sexuality mingle.” Attoe said of his work, “The landscape can be enjoyed for its beauty, and the disparity between it and the figures, but it also exists in service to these contemporary people in funny or ordinary clothing saying everyday things about e-mails or engaging in interpersonal clumsiness.” Dan Attoe’s recent shows include Glowing River at The Hole in New York; Recent Landscapes at Half Gallery in New York (reviewed in Artinfo); Landscapes with Water at Peres Projects in Berlin (reviewed in Frieze Magazine); and Dan Attoe at 1430 Contemporary in Portland (reviewed in Art in America). He has been in numerous group shows in galleries and museums in the United States and Europe. He worked with and was part of the inspiration for a line of clothing by fashion designer Adam Kimmel in 2011. Attoe is also one of the founders of Paintallica, an artist collective that has presented performative installations across the country, as well as Barneys New York and the Iowa State Fair. Dan Attoe’s work has been written about and featured in Artforum, The Los Angeles Times, Art Review, The Journal, Flash Art, Berlin Art Journal, PAPERMAG and The New York Times. He received his BFA from the University of Wisconsin in 1998 and his MFA from the University of Iowa in 2004. He is represented by Western Exhibitions in Chicago and Peres Projects in Berlin. Born in 1975 in Bremerton, Washington, Attoe grew up in parts of Washington, Idaho, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and now lives and works in Washougal, Washington.