“Frank Hansen openings always flirt with lawlessness,” reads a description of the Des Moines artist’s work from 2009. “This year his show will feature a painting that needs to be driven like a car.”
At that point, Hansen was well on his way to carving out a niche in the Des Moines art scene. Twenty-five years ago, as an explosion of new artists began making their mark in Central Iowa, Hansen was among this new vanguard of creatives. They formed the 218-1/2 Paintpushers, a mutually supportive effort to regularly meet for networking, critiquing and development. Their original meeting hall was in Historic Valley Junction, 218-1/2 5th St (once an International Order of the Odd Fellows lodge, now a marketing/branding company).
Since his Grand View days, Hansen has been featured in Des Moines’ Moberg Gallery, among others, and has had numerous exhibitions in Zanzibar’s Coffee Adventure. He collaborated with his artist wife, Holly, for “The Frolly Show,” “over 200 cute, affordable, little drawings” for Zanzibar patrons to choose from: “pick out your favorite, or a group of freaks, and hang them together…”
One of his best-known works is a mural at 809 Pennsylvania Ave in Des Moines, Sarah and Leland With Bees, a multi-story mural depicting two children who’d be right at home in a Klasky-Csupo cartoon, among smiling bees wearing top hats. Sarah’s face is awash with pink and yellow and contorted — the aftermath of a sting, perhaps? Leland seems happier, though he is the one who looks like the teeth are falling right out of his head…