THE story of how of Dan Colen landed his first major show at the Gagosian Gallery sounds a bit like an art-world version of one of the Disney tales that sometimes show up in his painting.

One drunken night after an exhibition opening in 2006, Mr. Colen and Sam Orlofsky, a director of the high-powered Gagosian Gallery, found themselves sitting around the artist Cecily Brown’s Manhattan studio. The two men started talking.

“I’d seen his work here and there,” Mr. Orlofsky recalled. “And I remember friends told me about it, too. The market was on fire back then, with one gallery after another opening in Chelsea every week. Since I knew one day something was going to happen to this guy, I suggested he do a show with us.”

Mr. Colen laughed at the idea, Mr. Orlofsky remembers: “He said, “Yeah right, where am I going to show, in the bathrooms?’ ”