Happy Hour 

Dan Graziano’s painting, Happy Hour, uses oil paint on what appears to be a small canvas board. The artist chose a familiar, perhaps mundane, subject: a bottle of amber liquid set on a reflective surface. Look closely, and you can see the artist's active brushstrokes, the thick impasto adding dimension and texture to the scene. The paint application is not about illusionism, but about the materiality of oil, and the way it sits on the surface of the canvas. The painting is as much about the paint as it is about the subject it represents. Think of the history of still life painting. By taking a common object and giving it his full attention, Graziano elevates it, prompting us to consider the beauty in the everyday. It also evokes the culture of consumerism, and our complex relationship with products that promise leisure and escape. It blurs the lines between high art and the imagery of commercial culture, inviting reflection on the aesthetics of our daily lives.