ARTFORUM.com / Review
by Micol Hebron
Lately, segments of the US economy have been marked by extremes—witness the crash of the housing market, the explosion of the art market, and the ever-increasing cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The $750 million price tag on the as-yet-unfinished US embassy in Baghdad is an intriguing footnote to Dan Bayles’s paintings of the embassy ...
Read moreFRIEZE / Review
Issue 115, May 2008, by Jeffrey Ryan
One thing that has emerged from the latest Gulf War is a cottage industry of books about the shortcomings, political myopia and spiralling failures of the American occupation of Iraq. The range of dysfunction that has evolved on President Bush’s watch is staggering and ongoing. Set against all this has been the US government’s attempt to build a new embassy in Baghdad, which will be the largest in any country (rivalling the Vatican in size) as well as the most costly, with a price-tag of roughly $1 billion. Dan Bayles has used this scheme as the subject of a series of paintings entitled ‘New Ruins’ (all works 2007), and the two are perfectly made for one another ...
Read moreLA TIMES / Review
by Leah Ollman
Dan Bayles‘ paintings of the new U.S. Embassy buildings in Baghdad have something in common with
other aspects of our engagement in Iraq: The designs are compelling on paper but far from tenable on the
ground. Perfectly acceptable for art, not such a good idea in politics ...