Denver artist Dan Ragland creates large scale intricate photographs
which tap into our dreams and fears. Often placing himself into art referential
back grounds, Ragland becomes transformed, appearing as an androgyne, a
masked child and a frightened man. Looking frenzied or hurried, Ragland
seems to be haunted by a dream or a memory from his childhood -- a memory
that is both vague and yet familiar.
Although Ragland continues to create self-portraits , he recently turned
his camera towards his friends, creating large portraits which tackle
complex issues about identity. While his new pieces continue to tap into
our desires and fears, they also possess a psychological hypnotic drama
that is revealed through a vacuous stare, a radiant light or an imposing
gesture. The final surface -- a layering of paints, dry pigments and turpentine
-- adds to the existing drama in the pieces, leaving us mesmerized.
Dan Ragland's pieces are all one-of-a-kind. After digitally enlarging a Polaroid
image to 38" x 30," Ragland attacks the surface of the paper with
sand paper, removing layers which he then re-works and enhances by
applying dry and wet pigments, shellac, wax and turpentine. The final
surface, with both its gestural frenzy and its glazed colors, adds
to the existing drama present in the images.
In his recent work, Dan Ragland serves as his own model for his recent
24 x 20" ink jets prints which he paints and scratches. Creating psychological
portraits of himself and his environment, Ragland taps into our dreams
and fears, as he transforms himself from a lifeless figure to a man
prowling a tenement hallway. In his newest pieces, Ragland focuses
the camera on himself and his body's transformation due to aging.
Like John Coplans, he photographs his body without limitations, revealing
the sags, wrinkles and landscapes that emerge with age. Through these
pieces we witness the evolution of the human body and its ability
to transform regardless of efforts made to retain our youth.
