ARTNews
Dan Attoe’s Show Was Closed by the Coronavirus. He’s Using Art as a Way to Cope.
March 25th, 2020
By Ana Finel Honigman

With his characteristic passion and sensitivity, Dan Attoe creates the kind of art that may represent a new understanding of life in the time of Covid-19. His solo show at the Hole gallery in New York—closed by the shutdown in the city and now open by appointment only—is named after Glowing River (2020), a paperback-sized oil painting featuring a slender blond girl wearing a white sundress who appears to be wandering toward a neon-blue stream like a plucky protagonist fighting through the magical wildness in a fairy tale. Her compelling form and apparent fascination with the supernatural water initially captures the viewer’s attention. But prolonged looking summons other characters to emerge warily around her. Casually dressed in contemporary clothes, those adults are atomized while interconnected, practicing social distancing but comprising a society.

This delicate painting, created with Attoe’s signature poignancy and poetry, highlights what we can’t overlook, as well as something we are now beginning to recognize—we need each other and we are all, for better or worse, in this together. It’s a theme echoed by Go Easy (2020), a wall-sized neon sculpture of a bouncy blond hovering over her own reflection in a lake between mountains. The work’s title sounds like the self-care mantras that have become commonplace in many people’s daily lives—it’s like a call for viewers to go easy on themselves. Weeks ago, this title seemed like a generous, optimist message. Now, it’s a powerful directive in a time when it’s just about impossible to avoid stressful situations.

Just days before New York began facing the full brunt of the coronavirus pandemic, Attoe sat down for an interview in the city. Creating art in Washougal, Washington, where he lives with his wife and daughters, Attoe offered insight into America’s myths and marrow. His words about creative expression in disastrous times now ring especially true.

Read the full interview here.