Contemporary Abstraction
"Doug Kacena's confident style of contemporary abstract expressionism recounts a lifetime's passion told in dynamic contrast of potent impasto, thin washes and pure fearlessness."
- American Art Collector Magazine
Works
Doug Kacena, "Continuous and Endless ", Oil on Canvas, (Tryptic) 60 x 144", Private Collection
"Doug Kacena Is Ready to Take Art in New Directions"
- Westword Magazine
Doug Kacena’s painting practice is rooted in the tension between recognizable patterns, everyday subtleties, and the shifting meanings that emerge when familiar visual language is disrupted. His work often begins with common forms, cultural tropes, or visual generalizations, which he then deconstructs, redacts, and reassembles through a process that is both intuitive and highly considered.
Working with a restrained but energetic visual vocabulary, Kacena explores how a single gesture, mark, or brushstroke can carry complex emotional and conceptual weight. His paintings balance minimalism with movement, precision with spontaneity, and humor with deeper psychological undercurrents. The resulting works often feel both controlled and frenetic, revealing the physicality of the process while questioning the stability of image, meaning, and perception.
Kacena received his undergraduate education in Fine Art, with an emphasis in painting, and Art History, with a focus on Modern and Contemporary American Art, from the University of Colorado Boulder. His work has been exhibited throughout Colorado and beyond, including presentations at the Colorado Governor’s Mansion, Fort Collins Museum of Art, Lone Tree Arts Center, Abend Gallery, ArtWork Network, Mike Wright Gallery, and K Contemporary. His paintings have been featured in numerous publications, including Art Ltd., Westword, Fine Art Connoisseur, 5280 Magazine, The Denver Post, 303 Magazine, Southwest Art Magazine, and American Art Collector.
His conceptual exhibition Crossover was the subject of a PBS special produced in conjunction with Colorado Public Television and Schler Productions, and was nominated for a regional Emmy Award in 2017. His work can be found in private and public collections, including Macy’s Herald Square in New York and the InterContinental Hotel at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.
Doug Kacena, Studio View of works in process, 96 x 60" each
Redacted Landscapes
Redaction started informing Doug’s work in 2015-16, when he procured landscape photography and painted broad, emotive strokes over the photographs. This idea of exposing certain aspects of a scene and hiding others intrigued him and continued to influence his style for years after. In these artworks, Doug was expressing the feelings of loss and curiosity, speaking directly about the Colorado landscapes he grew up in and the influx of people moving to the state to immerse themselves in those bucolic scenes. The redactions also gave Doug a way to convey the sense of leaving something behind, or having something obscured from view and were a precursor to his 'Crossover' Exhibition.
(top to bottom), Doug Kacena, Redacted Landscape VIII, IV, V
Acrylic and Arrival Pigment on Paper, 21 x 44",
Collection of the InterContinental, MN and Private Collections
"Kacena has taken great liberties with his brush, identifying key lines, shapes and blocks of color within his not-so-raw material and reinterpreting them with an emotional freedom."
-Denver Post
"Doug Kacena of Mike Wright Gallery is one of Denver’s most gifted abstract artists....whose powerful oils are prized by galleries and collectors across the Front Range."
-Denver Post, YourHub, January 2016
