Contemporary Abstract Expressionist

Tantalizing imagery draws you into Dan Wooster’s paintings, allowing the subtle layers of candy-coated composition to work their magic on you.  Each imaginative piece by this Los Angeles-based artist and sculptor seems to draw the viewer into colorful “other worlds” that have been whimsically fabricated through stream-of-consciousness free-form oils and acrylics.  Often, his pieces are created on four- or five-foot canvases, the scale of which enhances the intoxicating visual impact of his sometimes-risky subject matter.

The creative elements that Dan inserts into his compositions can largely be interpreted by the viewer and do not always represent symbolism.  Instead, he tends to lean toward the importance of spatial relationships between imagery rather than trying to carry underlying messages. “ People perceive color, shape and line the same way they read faces and gestures. Visual understanding is below the conscious level of analysis. I create images that communicate with the unconscious.”    

The figures can often be seen, with great emotion, frolicking with one another in various poses, sometimes taking on a surreal atmosphere in relation to the landscape around them.  Many of Dan’s paintings also reflect his sensual nature, manifested in the many nudes he has done. He uses imagery to portray deeper primal urges. Figures are revelling in their sexuality, but fearing the escape of their animal nature.

One of the most promising artists emerging from the bustle of the growing “NoHo” (North Hollywood) Art District, Daniel P. Wooster has shown in dozens of group and solo shows in Los Angeles, San Diego, New York and Boston.  Currently, a large work hangs in the Rotunda of the state capitol building in Sacramento, California, part of a yearlong exhibition celebrating California’s artistic diversity.  Dan’s work also appears in many private collections throughout the United States, including the Pritikin Foundation in Santa Monica, California, and Art Share Los Angeles.  In 2001, he received a federal grant to paint an 18’ x 44’ section of the North Hollywood Mural Project.

Dan Wooster was born in Philadelphia in 1963 and received his BFA from the Art Institute of Boston.  He now resides in Los Angeles with his wife Dana.