Though they fall within the heritage of American abstract expressionism, Dan Bayles’ paintings are part of a conceptual process, connected for its part to the tradition of studying the site. Dan Bayles brings to the surface of the canvas American building ambitions that had been relegated to oblivion. This epiphany of architectural repression operates in a versatile pictorial style - appearing to select its influences depending on the subject - while also characterized by soft lines and colorful ranges. The seductive painting, calling for an experience of ruin, underscores through its ambiguity the paradoxes governing the constitution of the landscapes. While the Khan Bani Saad Correctional Facility (2011) series is interested in the failed reconstruction of the prison in Iraq, the paintings and collages presented by the François Ghebaly Gallery are derived from research on early plans conceived for Black Mountain College. Accordingly, the artistic project could be located in the gap between the ideal and the actual facts, which themselves form a mythological narrative in the history of art.
Dan Bayles
