Dan Hamilton (b. 1952) has achieved great technical and creative skills in painting, drawing, ceramics, and textiles during his tenure in Creative Growth’s Studio. Hamilton’s paintings and drawings are characterized by their flat perspective and dedication to solid color forms. With clearly defined lines that carefully surround each color field, Hamilton’s figurative works, consisting primarily of animals, landscapes, and buildings, are not vastly different from his abstract works. Hamilton approaches ceramic sculpture with the same efficiency by hand-building large minimalistic animals and “loaves”, and covering them with just one or two high gloss colors. These formidable ceramics are irresistibly thick and smooth, with swaths of color that rise and bulge within their organic forms.
CREATIVE GROWTH
Founded in 1974, Creative Growth is a non-profit based in Oakland, CA that provides a professional studio environment and gallery representation to artists with developmental disabilities. The Creative Growth Studio is home to over 140 artists who work in a variety of media. Facilitated by professional artists, the studio provides artistic support, high-quality materials, and space for painting, drawing, ceramics, wood working, fiber arts, printmaking, and digital media. The studio is an open space, converted 12,000 square foot former auto repair shop. The Creative Growth Gallery exhibits and represents artwork by Creative Growth artists, securing a place for their work in major collections and institutions worldwide. It presents public exhibitions in the Oakland gallery and represents Creative Growth artists at national and international art fairs every year. Artwork fostered in this unique environment has been acquired by prominent collections and museums worldwide, including the MoMA, The Centre Pompidou, SFMOMA, the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The American Folk Art Museum, and the collection de L’art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2020 Inter-Avant-Garde, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln
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