Opening Reception, Tuesday 9/23/2025 5-7 pm
Artist Statement
In this current series of collage art from 2023-2025, I aim to demonstrate how an artist can transform works of the past into new creations. While reflecting on a series of abstract paintings I created twenty or more years ago, I realized I could enhance the compositions by cutting them into smaller sections and recombining them.
Three different types of abstract paintings were disassembled to begin these new works. One type was color field painting that utilized water-based spraying techniques, contrasting thickly poured surfaces with sprayed fields of dispersed color. Another was a series of oil and acrylic paintings based on bold shapes. The third type was a more recent series of oil paintings on paper.
I generally destroy and reassemble the work multiple times, altering size and scale throughout the process. I add gouache and/or ink to some of the pieces. The discovery of the work and its requirements emerges through the intentional recreation process.
My goal with this work is to continue growing, expanding, and developing differing approaches. I aim not to create merely attractive decorative works of art but to evoke complex states of mind that are unexpected and irregular by nature. The historicity of the pieces defines their potential interpretation in the viewer’s mind.
Bio
Dana Hatchett earned a BFA from S.U.N.Y. Purchase (1980) and MFA from S.U.N.Y.Buffalo (1992). He taught at Erie Community College and S.U.N.Y. Buffalo before retiring as professor from Daemen College in 2017. His work has appeared in numerous venues, including the juried Buffalo Society of Artists’ 2025 Summer Exhibition, the juried Amid/In WNY 2025 at Hallwalls, and a solo collage show at Crucible Art
Collective in March 2025. In 2025 his Erie Canal drawings exhibited in solo shows at the Art Gallery at Montabaur Heights and the Earlville Opera House. In 2024, his collage received Honorable Mention at the Buffalo Society of Artists’ 128th Catalogue Exhibition.