Dan Hudson is a Canadian artist who works fluidly between painting, photography, video and new media. His ecologically themed work lives in the fault-lines between the natural world and contemporary culture. From this position, he connects the experience of everyday life with concepts of time, cosmology and existence.
Hudson was adopted at birth and grew up untethered from his genetic history in the suburbs of Oshawa (aaz haway). When he was seventeen, he embarked on a 16,000 km solo hitch-hiking odyssey and documented his trip in a sketchbook. After his university studies at York University in Toronto and UCSD in California, he spent two years Mexico, surfing, making paintings and exploring archaeological sites. These early quests set the trajectory that his life has continued on ever since.
To support his art habit, Hudson had various jobs such as steel worker, construction labourer and as the assistant head of the art studio program at the Banff Centre. For the many years, he earned income as a photo journalist specializing in adventure sports including surfing, snowboarding, mountain biking and whitewater kayaking. Hudson was sent all over the world on assignments for major publications, has had more than 60 international cover shots and won several awards for his photography.
His (often extreme) encounters with the primal forces of nature as a photo journalist imparts an intimacy and honesty to Hudson’s art practice.
Over the years, Hudson has had studios in Berlin, Toronto, San Diego, Mexico, Banff, Leipzig and is currently based in Canmore, Alberta (Treaty 7 territory). Hudson has won multiple awards for his art projects and has participated in a long list of solo and group exhibitions throughout North America and Europe.
