Caleb Hahne Quintana isn’t afraid to make art that’s about himself. He often paints quiet moments from life, like getting a haircut or holding a glass. The paintings are touching, with a soft intimate glow. But these seemingly small scenes relate to much bigger things from the artist’s life and history. Water and horses, for example, represent migration. Hands and candles give a sense of home and belonging. All of this comes from many different memories. “I’ll have a series of images floating through my head”, he describes. “Eventually I find the right set of images that need to go together.”
Hahne Quintana's paintings are haunted by time. Or rather, lack of it. In Genesis of Arcadia (2022), three men travel on horseback through a snowy mountain range. The title hints at a beginning, but we have no idea where the story will lead. By contrast, in The Other Side is Day (2021) a man stands alone on a grassy plain with his back turned. The setting sun suggests that something is coming to an end – but, again, we don’t know what. This mysterious sense of time and place leaks throughout Hahne Quintana’s art. Perhaps even he doesn’t know himself. That, of course, is the charm.