Humans
Prints by Dan McCleary
August 8 - September 19, 2026
Opening Reception & Artist Led Walkthrough: Saturday, August 8 from 3-5 PM
Walkthrough begins at 3 PM, reception to follow.
Artist Talk: Dan McCleary & Tom Knechtel: Saturday, September 5, 2026, at 11 AM
Hannah Sloan Curatorial & Advisory
5613 San Vicente Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90019
Press Release
Hannah Sloan Curatorial & Advisory is pleased to present Humans: Prints by Dan McCleary, a survey exhibition spanning more than thirty years of the Los Angeles based artist’s printmaking practice. Featuring etchings, linocuts, and other works on paper, the exhibition traces McCleary’s evolution as a printmaker and his lifelong engagement with the human figure.
McCleary is known for his spare compositions and humble depictions of the people and quotidian moments of everyday life. Placing his sitters (usually friends, family, or students) in simple settings and working exclusively from life, he cultivates an intimacy and authenticity that cannot be achieved from a reference photograph. Stripping away pretense, he distills each sitter to their essence, attentive to the vulnerability of being observed closely and translated, line by line to the page, the canvas or the printing plate. The result is not a mere likeness, but rather a deeply human, almost sacred encounter, one that emerges through patient observation and the mutual respect between artist and sitter.
Collaboration is equally fundamental in McCleary's printmaking practice. Since first discovering etching in 1990, he has worked alongside master printers in ateliers from Oakland to Paris to Oaxaca, embracing the workshop as a place where knowledge is exchanged and trust is developed. McCleary's introduction to intaglio printmaking came at Magnolia Editions in Oakland, where artist Mark Stock taught him the fundamentals of etching and drypoint. The experience was transformative. "Etching became as central to my output as painting and drawing," McCleary recalls. His earliest prints, intimate drypoint portraits of his niece Gia Chiumento and his husband Tony Abatemarco, were inspired by Pablo Picasso's early portrait of Fernande Olivier. Drawn to Picasso's economy of line and emotional immediacy, McCleary sought a similar resonance, discovering how the etched line could convey both physical presence and psychological depth with extraordinary restraint.
Later in Oaxaca, Mexico, McCleary discovered Taller Sangfer and formed a longstanding collaboration with master printer Fernando Sandoval. Drawn to Sandoval’s technical expertise and the warm creative atmosphere of the workshop, McCleary returned repeatedly to Oaxaca, where he developed some of his most significant bodies of work, including his celebrated skull etchings and the Masculine/Feminine series. “Taller Sangfer has remained the home of my printmaking practice,” McCleary writes. Through his ongoing collaboration with Sandoval and the printers at the workshop, McCleary has continued to expand his exploration of intaglio techniques including etching, aquatint, drypoint, and other processes, returning every year to deepen his practice.
Some of his most sensitive and compelling prints are portraits of the printermakers at Taller Sangfer whose support and collaboration have been integral to his practice. Like many of his prints, these portraits share an austere, confident, minimalist quality. The Classical order and timeless dignity of works such as these has often prompted comparisons to Piero della Francesca, whose figures have the columnar confidence of a marble temple.
More recently, McCleary has expanded his printmaking through a series of linoleum block portraits of students from Art Division, the nonprofit arts education organization he founded in Los Angeles in 2010. Continuing his lifelong commitment to working from direct observation, these portraits reflect his enduring investigation of the human figure and his dedication to mentorship, community and the importance of artistic exchange.
In addition to finished prints, Humans will present the copper plates used to produce McCleary's limited-edition Skulls portfolio, created in Oaxaca and inspired by the haunting still-life etchings of Giorgio Morandi. The exhibition will also include progressive proof impressions documenting the development of his image of Christ, loosely based on Correggio's Veronica's Veil in the Getty Museum collection. Together, these materials offer a glimpse into McCleary's process, revealing the technical decisions and collaborative craftsmanship that shape each finished work.
Dan McCleary studied at Loyola High School in Los Angeles, Santa Monica College, The San Francisco Art Institute, and attended the Skowghegen School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. His work has been featured in more than fifty solo and group exhibitions across the United States and Europe and is included in the collections of The Hammer Museum, Harvard Art Museums, LACMA, The Met and the NY Public Library.
As part of the exhibition programming, Hannah Sloan Curatorial & Advisory will host a conversation between Dan McCleary and artist, educator, and curator Tom Knechtel on Saturday, September 5, 2026, at 11 AM.
Humans: Prints by Dan McCleary opens with a reception and walkthrough with the artist at Hannah Sloan Curatorial & Advisory on Saturday, August 8, 2026, from 3–5 PM. The exhibition will remain on view through September 19, 2026.
Press inquiries can be directed to Diana Fitzgibbon at diana@hannahsloan.com.
/ About
Los Angeles artist Dan McCleary has been described by Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight as “one of the finest figure painters working today.” Working directly from life in his MacArthur Park studio, McCleary uses classical geometric methodologies like the golden mean and foundational shapes such as cubes, spheres, and cylinders to ground his compositions with the monumental gravity, structure, and balance of Renaissance masters like Piero della Francesca. Illuminated by a single left-facing light source, his quiet portraits, still lifes, and floral arrangements evoke the structural dignity and timeless focus of Vermeer, Morandi, and Manet. By applying these rigorous, classical systems to ordinary, everyday actions, such as a figure sitting in a coffee shop or painting their toenails, McCleary elevates routine, mundane human moments into solid, timeless portraits.
McCleary's prints and works on paper represent a core, multi-decade branch of his creative practice. His printmaking history includes early intaglio explorations at Magnolia Editions in Oakland in the 1990s, alongside an enduring 25-year collaboration with the master printers at Taller Sangfer in Oaxaca, Mexico. These graphic works were the subject of a major survey and catalogue organized by the USC Fisher Museum of Art and the Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca. Deeply invested in his local community, McCleary also founded Art Division in 2010, a non-profit art school providing resources and mentorship for under-resourced young adults in Los Angeles.
An LA native, McCleary studied at Santa Monica College, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. His artwork has been featured in over fifty solo and group exhibitions across the United States and Europe, and is held in prominent permanent public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), The Hammer Museum, the Harvard Art Museums, and the New York Public Library.
