Finding the beauty in bird shit and a weltanschauung in wads of chewed gum affixed to canvas, Gagosian Gallery-anointed artist Dan Colen makes the kind of art that people love. Unless they hate it. Colen relies on common detritus and ephemera in his “mixed media” work, inspiring both epiphanies and eye-rolls (and doubtless some envy among fellow fabricators). He’s headed to the popular art fair Art Basel Miami Beach next week, where he hopes to tickle the funny bones connected to the wallets of collectors with his latest tongue-in-cheek project – a series of whoopee cushions filled with concrete.
Pop artist-cum-bibliophile Richard Prince has published a book about Colen and his cushions (under Prince’s private imprint Fulton Ryder). The title – “A Real Bronx Cheer” – refers to the sound of a deployed whoopee cushion and the ‘pfffft’ sound originally heard in the legendarily tough New York borough’s vaudeville houses – when a show bombed. Colen is now using the art of PR to help sell the 1,000 copies of the $75 art book. Last month, the artist threw a book party at a Manhattan jazz club where close friends, supermodel Stefanie Seymour and magic man David Blaine, together performed an odd routine involving poetry (her) and saran wrap (him) on stage. Pfffft. They didn’t dare try it in the Bronx…