Rubber Ducks and Battleships

Steven Dana has created works of art for hundreds of the nation's top magazines, record companies, and book publishers. Dana’s paintings have been included in numerous exhibitions and his work has shown in NY, Dusseldorf, and Wonju S. Korea. His work is included in private collections as well as in the permanent collection of The Library of Congress. Among his many commissions he has created a CD cover for the iconic rock group YES, the cover of President Obama’s first book "Dreams From My Father", and a custom designed and painted surfboard for a 2 time Olympic Figure Skater. His collage "Patriotism Begins in the Home" was published on the front page of The New York Times shortly after 9/11.

Born in the Bronx in 1965, Dana at a young age, spent afternoons with his grandmother, painting along side her in a small 3rd floor walk up studio where the sun streamed in. Here he mixed colors, painted canvas and cardboard and listened to her stories of how in 1908 at the age of 12, she trained the soldiers of the Hungarian army to run the obstacle course at the military base she called home with her father, the Captain.

Dana’s paintings combine acrylic paint, collage and many mediums and materials and reflects the varied interests of an ever curious mind. The subject matter of his art is often a loose stream of consciousness in which cultural symbols and psychological associations mix together as a documentation of a very personal interpretation of the world that surrounds. Whether his messages are deep and engaging, pointedly whimsical, or conveying a unique commentary on the overlooked and mundane of daily life, Dana powerfully expresses his ruminations through his diverse styles of pop art, poetic surreal collages, or his purely abstract presentations of color, texture, pattern, and materials.