The sun is setting. Colorado-based Caleb Hahne's One Sun solo exhibition is in its final weeks at Denver's Rule Gallery. Consisting of a series of paintings, the artist romanticizes mundane moments through an ongoing exploration of memory, vulnerability, intimacy, and boyhood.

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Using a limited color palette, Hahne creates an unexpected shift from the reference image, effectively accentuating the warmth of sunlight on one's skin. Generating a glow around each subject, the artist presents everyday moments, like reading a book or getting a haircut, as truly wonderful, dream-like experiences. With such approach, the images radiate with positivity and appreciation, inputs much needed in current times.

The artist's technique results from a conscious process of stepping away from careful renderings and observational drawings. By re-painting the same image from memory, Hahne leaves out technical details, focusing on emotive aspects of the moment. This sensible method results in visual poetry, indirectly evoking feelings of love, compassion, longing, and loss.

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Focusing on ambiance rather than content, Hahne constructs a coherent body of intimate work in which the sun, as the metaphor of time, is subtly portrayed through a captivating shine on human skin. Combining such visual language with unusual formatting, Hahne places the viewer right beside his subjects, allowing him to share these special moments together and potentially identify with them. Sasha Bogojev