Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Daniel Handal
Cat in the Hat Kitty (Tuxedo)

2015

About the Item

Oil on canvas Signed and dated in black ink, verso This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Daniel Handal writes: “With ‘Cats in Costume’ I wanted to work on a project that was colorful and pertinent, but also absurd. Inspired by the popularity of cats wearing costumes online, it occurred to me that there was something to be said about why these images are so popular. Cats have become symbols of the internet itself—wild, playful, chaotic—and also a major source of cultural obsession, a phenomenon that was explored at length by the Museum of the Moving Image in New York in its 2015 exhibition titled ‘How Cats Took Over the Internet.’ Around that time I started to notice a shift in our collective feline fascination, during this new era of cultural change and political uncertainty. Even though we have always enjoyed sharing memes and viral videos of cats doing wacky things, today we may no longer find them as comforting. As part of an ongoing shift in consciousness, I have seen an increase in the popularity of internet cats acting like dogs (cats are not, for example, so easily dressed up in costumes). Perhaps by sharing images of cats whose behavior reminds us of trained puppies, we can be reassured that we are capable of restoring order to our lives, which at times can feel swept away by fast-changing technologies and by the sense that we are all interconnected in a world that might appear beyond our control. “I was also thinking about the lifespan of online content, particularly of these nonsensical images. When someone takes a silly picture, posts it online or shares it with friends, these images are subsequently (re)shared and (re)posted; some becoming viral, others totally forgotten. What if I took such images and hired a painter to turn them into oil paintings, one of art’s most traditional mediums? Would these physical objects outlive their digital counterparts? “Sol Lewitt famously wrote that ‘in conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important part of the work.’ This has been true from the moment Marcel Duchamp exhibited ‘Fountain’ in New York in 1917, the iconic urinal that ‘severed forever the traditional link between the artist’s labour and the merit of the work,’ as defined by Rob Sharp in The Independent. Nobody knows what happened to the original sculpture, but a photo of the work taken by Alfred Stieglitz was used to reproduce 16 replicas of it in the 1950s and 1960s, with the approval of Duchamp. These ‘Cats in Costume’ paintings use a similar approach: they are fabricated to specification from preexisting images.” Daniel Handal is a Honduran-born artist who lives and works in New York City. He received his BS in Applied Sciences from Rutgers University and studied photography at the International Center of Photography. Handal’s work centers on portraiture and explores issues of gender, sexuality, identity, and community. He has had a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Public Library (Flatbush Branch) and has been shown in group exhibitions at the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Deborah Colton Gallery in Houston, and The powerHouse Arena in Brooklyn, among others. He has been exhibited internationally at the Australian Centre for Photography and MKII in London. Handal’s work has been published in The Huffington Post, Slate, and Hyperallergic. He has been awarded residencies at The Millay Colony for the Arts, the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. Handal currently serves on the board of directors of Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York.
  • Creator:
    Daniel Handal (Honduran)
  • Creation Year:
    2015
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 12 in (30.48 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU93234098172

More From This Seller

View All
Lion Kitty (Tortoiseshell II)
By Daniel Handal
Located in New York, NY
Oil on canvas Signed and dated in black ink, verso This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Daniel Handal writes: “With ‘Cats in Costume’ I wanted to work on ...
Category

2010s Other Art Style Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Bridal Kitty (Albino)
By Daniel Handal
Located in New York, NY
Oil on canvas Signed and dated in black ink, verso This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Daniel Handal writes: “With ‘Cats in Costume’ I wanted to work on ...
Category

2010s Other Art Style Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Hawaiian Kitty (Cream Tabby II)
By Daniel Handal
Located in New York, NY
Oil on canvas Signed and dated in black ink, verso This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Daniel Handal writes: “With ‘Cats in Costume’ I wanted to work on ...
Category

2010s Other Art Style Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Pirate Kitty (Silver Tabby)
By Daniel Handal
Located in New York, NY
Oil on canvas Signed and dated in black ink, verso This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Daniel Handal writes: “With ‘Cats in Costume’ I wanted to work on ...
Category

2010s Other Art Style Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Cowboy Kitty (Cameo Tabby)
By Daniel Handal
Located in New York, NY
Oil on canvas Signed and dated in black ink, verso This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Daniel Handal writes: “With ‘Cats in Costume’ I wanted to work on ...
Category

2010s Other Art Style Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Frog Kitty (Black/Ebony)
By Daniel Handal
Located in New York, NY
Oil on canvas Signed and dated in black ink, verso This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Daniel Handal writes: “With ‘Cats in Costume’ I wanted to work on ...
Category

2010s Other Art Style Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like

Study of a Pig
By Sir Edwin Landseer
Located in New York, NY
Signed and dated, lower right: EL / Nov 34 Provenance: Barbara and Ernest Kafka, New York.
Category

1830s English School Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Trees & Cottage in the English Countryside by 20th Century Landscape Artist
By James Wright
Located in Preston, GB
Trees & Cottage in the English Countryside by 20th Century British Landscape Artist, James Wright Signed, Original, Oil on Canvas, housed in a beautiful ornate gold frame. Provenanc...
Category

1980s Romantic Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Oil Painting "Elefantenherde" ( Elephant Flock ) by Rudolf Schulz-Borek, 1954
By Rudolph Schulz-Borek
Located in Berlin, DE
Oil on canvas, 1954 by Rudolf Schulz-Borek ( (1887 - 1983), Germany. Study for "Gefährlicher Wind". On the back inscribed. Framed. Dimensions: 10.04 x 17.91 in ( 25,5 x 45,5 cm )
Category

1950s Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Working Horse
By Lucy Kemp Welch
Located in Douglas, Isle of Man
Lucy Kemp Welch 1869-1958 was an English artist and teacher who specialised in the painting of horses. From the 1890''s until the 1920's she was the most famous painter of horses in...
Category

Early 20th Century Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1952 oil painting of a house fly by British artist Derek Hirst, in blacks greys
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Derek HIRST (British,1930-2006) La Mouche No.2 (1952) Oil on canvas 17.1/2 x 24.1/4 in. (44.5 x 61.6 cm.) Provenance: Flowers East Gallery, Richmond Derek Hirst (b. in Doncast...
Category

20th Century Modern Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1952 oil painting of a house fly by British artist Derek Hirst, in blacks greys
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Derek Hirst (British, 1930-2006) La Mouche No.I (1952) Oil on canvas 20 x 24.1/4 in. (51 x 61.6 cm.) Provenance: Flowers East Gallery, Richmond Derek Hirst (b. in Doncaster, Y...
Category

20th Century Modern Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All