Oakland-based painter Dan Hampe has made a name for himself through his visceral, dreamlike imagery. His work brings motion to stagnant space, at times seeming to leap off the canvas with both elegance and violence blended in measure. 

Commentary by Dan Hampe

“I really kind of move back and forth between representation, which would be the more traditional and classical stuff, and abstraction. I kind of play those two elements against each other. There’s a gray area between them, where reality becomes blurred, yet still defined. I kind of weave both of those elements into themselves and dance through the gray area. From that you get a surreal but nonobjective flow throughout the painting.  That’s what’s really interesting to me, that area between representation and abstraction. There’s a vast unknown world that exists between the two. Exploring the unknown is thrilling, which, for me, is what keeps the fire burning.”