Dan Bainbridge
American, b. 1976
Merging cuteness with abjection, Dan Bainbridge produces mixed-media objects, installations, and collaged compositions, through which he twists Western mythology, childhood fantasies, and our celebrity-obsessed popular culture. Britney Spears, unicorns, and the she-wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus have all appeared in his works. He seeks out found images and objects, incorporating them into pieces like Unicorn (2013), in which a glowing crystal impales a pink stuffed horse, its tip sticking out garishly from its head. Glowing crystals also appear as the teats of a wolf in She Wolf Reading Light (2013), with its distinct reference to the storied Roman animal. Bainbridge also seeks out other artists, with whom he has founded the collectives Monkey Mop Boy and French Neon, whose motto—“What French Neon has once been does not define what it will become”—applies to his own work.

