The Dan Colen of 2015 is quite a transformation from the enfant terrible of art who rose to notoriety in the early part of the noughties with friends Ryan McGinley and the late Dash Snow. Instead of the fabled drug- and alcohol-fueled nights, these days the artist indulges in early runs and farm-fresh food cultivated on his own, rather ironically named Sky High Farm in Upstate New York. 

“Dan’s pretty honest about the fact that he doesn’t know that much, but is totally fascinated by farming,” says the Montreal-based filmmaker Chelsea McMullan, who captured Colen at his Pine Plains residence. “There are a group of artists he works with to develop his large format sculptures and there are a group of farmers who work on the land and they all seem to cross over. Sometimes the artists farm and sometimes the farmers help with the art.” 

The farm, which the New Jersey native bought in 2011, is nonprofit and produces both livestock and crops, with around 95% of what is raised shipped to various food banks in New York City. 

“It’s interesting that Dan’s work has gone from being really material-based, like the chewing gum paintings, which were really synthetic, to now working with flowers and dirt,” says McMullan of Colen’s newer pieces, like “Infinite Jest,” an enormous bird’s nest created from natural and manmade ephemera that the artist found strewn around his estate. “It seems like the life cycle of a farm has influenced his work as well as his outlook.”