Dan Concholar
Dan Concholar’s (b. 1939, San Antonio, TX; d. 2017, Grass Valley, CA) work is notable for expressing formal content in bold forms and color through the use of oils, pastels, ink, and collage. Although initially influenced by impressionism and abstract expressionism, his oeuvre centers around organic, graphic abstraction.
Concholar was a born on a ranch in San Antonio, TX. He spent his formative years in Phoenix, AZ before moving to Los Angeles when he was a teenager. He later enrolled at the Otis Art Institute and took classes with Charles White, who had a great impact on his development as an artist and educator, as did his encounters with artists such as David Hammons, John Riddle, and Timothy Washington, and artists/gallerists Alonzo Davis and Dale Brockman Davis.
By the mid-1960s, Concholar was immersed in the Brockman Gallery community and held shows there as well as with Ankrum Gallery, and Gallery 32, where The First One Man Show of Dan Concholar was one of the gallery’s few solo exhibitions. Ankrum Gallery hosted Concholar’s last solo exhibition in Los Angeles: The Hollywood Series (1978), works drawn in pastel and mixed media depicting palm trees—an iconic image of the city.
Passionate about equal representation in the arts, Concholar taught art classes and ran various activities at the Watts Towers Art Center, where he met and became good friends with John Outterbridge. In 1969, Concholar joined the Black Arts Council (BAC) to provide opportunities for Black artists. Through BAC, he brought about three major exhibitions in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Three Graphic Artists: Charles White, David Hammons, and Timothy Washington (1971), traveled to Santa Barbara Museum of Art that same year; Los Angeles 1972: A Panorama of Black Artists (1972), in which Concholar’s work was included; and Two Centuries of Black American Art (1976), traveled to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, and the Brooklyn Museum.
Concholar’s work was included in the historic Just Above Midtown Gallery (JAM)’s inaugural show in New York in 1974, Synthesis: A combination of parts or elements into a complex whole. He moved to New York in 1980 at the encouragement of David Hammons, where he continued to show with JAM until it closed in 1986.
Concholar was recently featured in Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA (2026). Additional museum exhibitions include Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2022– 2023); Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960–1980, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2011-2012), traveled to MoMA PS1, New York, NY (2012-2013), and Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA; Gallery 32 and Its Circle, Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA (2009); L.A. Object & David Hammons Body Prints, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY; Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles, CA (2006-2007); Los Angeles 1972: A Panorama of Black Artists, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, (1972); Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY (1971); and Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, PA (1971), among many others.
Select Works
Select Exhibitions
Dan Concholar, Alonzo Davis & John Outterbridge.
Brockman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
October 6 - 27, 1968
Dan Concholar.
Gallery 32, Los Angeles, CA.
September 7 - October 10, 1969
The Yellow Bus Series.
Brockman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
May 30 - June 20, 1971
Dan Concholar: Hollywood Series. Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
September 15 - October 7, 1978
Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960 - 1980.
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
October 2, 2011 - January 8, 2012
MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY.
October 21, 2012 - March 11, 2013
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA.
July 20 - December 1, 2013
Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces.
MoMA, New York, NY.
October 9, 2022 - February 18, 2023
L.A. Object and David Hammons Body Prints.
Tilton Gallery, New York, NY. October 20 - November 25, 2006
Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, CA
June 30 - July 28, 2007
Act on It! Artists, Community, and the Brockman Gallery in Los Angeles.
Lancaster Museum of Art and History: May 10 - August 31, 2025
Vincent Price Art Museum: September 27, 2025 - January 24, 2026
California State University, Dominguez Hills University Art Gallery: February 11 - June 7, 2026
Select Press
2021
Godfrey, Mark; Biswas, Allie. “The Soul of a Nation Reader: Writing by and about Black American artists, 1960-1980.” New York: Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2021.
2006
Jones, Kellie. “Black West: Thoughts on Art in Los Angeles." In New Thoughts on the Black Arts Movement. Edited by Lisa Gail Collins and Margo Natalie Crawford. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2006.
1985
Robertson, Jack. “Twentieth-Century Artists on Art: An Index to Artists' Writings, Statements, and Interviews.” Boston: G. K. Hall, 1985.
1971
Atkinson, J. Edward. “Black Dimensions in Contemporary American Art.” New York: New American Library, 1971.
Lewis, Samella; Waddy, Ruth. “Black Artists on Art.” Los Angeles: Ward Press, 1969/1971.