Chinatown, New York
Caleb Hahne Quintana
A Boy That Don’t Bleed
Anat EbgiAnat Ebgi is pleased to present A Boy That Don't Bleed, an exhibition by Caleb Hahne Quintana. This is Hahne Quintana's second solo exhibition with the gallery. Building on earlier explorations of family, friendship, and the memory of home, A Boy That Don't Bleed marks a turn inward in Hahne Quintana's practice. This new body of work explores the mysteries of selfhood and the unconscious through the solitary figure of an adolescent boy depicted in repose and moments of contemplation. Where previous exhibitions bathed figures in the mythic light of radiant landscapes, these new paintings mark a tonal and formal shift, embracing a more ascetic, introspective, and somber mood. This recurring, unnamed figure emerges from the canvases in ochre, cadmium, and umber, illuminated by light that is precise and atmospheric. A quiet tension unfolds between the drama of illumination and the stillness of introspection. Hahne Quintana constructs a world where light and shadow act as narrative forces—isolating a gesture, a shoulder, the sheen of sweat, the pages of a book. His process is deliberate and considered; each painting begins with graphite drawings, followed by gouache and wax pastel studies to refine color, scale, composition, and emotional tone. Threaded through these quiet compositions are recurring motifs that lend the work a mythic undercurrent. Most prominent among them is the figure of a horse—a sentinel to the boy—an ancestral guide throughout his odyssey from inner awakening to self-realization. This human-equine relationship suggests a private mythology that Hahne Quintana constructs through repetition and atmosphere, something felt more than explicitly told. A chromatic thread of cobalt blue runs through the exhibition, marking the boy's passage from scene to scene with emotional charge. Rather than presenting a fixed narrative, these works evoke a world shaped by the quiet weight of being observed, remembered, or in the process of becoming. The title, A Boy That Don't Bleed, deepens the exhibition's emotional terrain. Borrowed from a line in a poem written by the artist, the phrase evokes the myth of masculine invulnerability, an enduring idea that boys and men ought to remain untouched by pain or emotion. It suggests a protected state of mythic immortality, like a saint, martyr, or a dream figure. Taken together the paintings in the exhibition form a portrait of a boy suspended in interior searching, caught someplace between the light of innocence and the shadow of transformation. "Manos De Piedra A body made of stone Cracked by natures wrath Man has his options A fork in the path Soul of two birds Salt of two seas Blades of cut grass A boy that don’t bleed You asked me how I got there But you created the ache What good is your heart If it does not break" —Caleb Hahne Quintana Caleb Hahne Quintana (b. 1993, Denver, CO; lives and works in Maspeth, NY) received a BFA in Fine Arts from Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. Recent solo exhibitions include Aurora, Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA; The Earth, It Held Me, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY and The Path From Sea to Sky, The Cabin, Los Angeles, CA. Hahne Quintana's work has been featured in group exhibitions at museums and galleries internationally, including Sean Kelly Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; M+M Gallery, Hong Kong, China; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; Alexander Berggruen, New York, NY; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Miami, FL; Kunstraum Potsdam, Germany; Lyles & King, New York, NY; OMR Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico; The Palazzo Reale, Milan and The Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY. Hahne Quintana's works are in the permanent collections of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; X Museum, Beijing; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; and the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, FL. Hahne Quintana is represented by Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles / New York.