Gaylen Hansen

Gaylen Hansen transports landscapes, animals, and insects native to the Palouse region of Washington, where he lives and works, into paintings that suggest mythical journeys through imagined realms. Many of the artist’s works feature an alter ego he calls “Kernal,” a bearded figure who travels through these surreal landscapes. Leaping fish, flying ducks, and other animals inhabit Neo-Expressionist paintings informed by his childhood in rural Utah. A graduate of the University of Southern California, Hansen was featured in a solo exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum in 1985 and in survey shows at the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, among many others. He received the Washington State Governor’s Arts and Heritage Award in 1989 and 1990.