New Paintings

September 14-26
Opening reception: Saturday, September 18, 3-6 pm

A minimalist by nature, native Nebraskan Dan O’Kane paints abstractions that reflect the stark beauty, big skies and endless horizons of the Great Plains. At the same time, his paintings allow his viewers to crawl into their own memory of personal extreme landscapes, either real or imagined.

Maps, satellite photos and contour drawings aid in the formation of many of O’Kane’s works. In his long-running series entitled “Prairie Haikus,” he reduces the traditional landscape into three ambiguous elements, i.e. land, sky and tree (or building, road and fence). Some of his larger works take on a sometimes playful and occasionally ominous look at how architectural elements interact with our perception of nature. Process also plays an important role in O’Kane’s work. The surface texture and quality of his paintings can range from the feel of fine suede to that of a highly refined, hard flat surface.

O’Kane has served as gallery director of the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha and has exhibited throughout Nebraska, as well as in New York, Mexico and Cambridge, MA. In addition to being a professional artist, O’Kane has traveled and performed extensively as a professional musician, most recently with the music and spoken-word production of “After All These Living Rooms.”