Hernan Bas
30 Aug - 19 Oct 2013
HERNAN BAS
Deep in the Dark of Texas
30 August – 19 October 2013
It is with great delight that Galerie Peter Kilchmann announces Hernan Bas’s second solo show at the gallery. Hernan Bas will be showing new medium and large-format paintings on canvas and linen, and several works on paper. Hernan Bas created this new body of work during an artist residency at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. Marfa became an artist colony of sorts in the 1970s when Donald Judd moved there and founded the Chinati Foundation. Located in the Chihuahuan Dessert close to the Mexican border, Marfa is indeed deep in the dark of Texas, as the exhibition title implies.
Vast, sprawling landscapes have inhabited the paintings of Hernan Bas for some time now, so the impressions Bas gathered during his residency in Texas seem like a natural continuation of his theme.
The painting There’s just no point in crying accentuates the shimmering heat with the yellow and white horizon in the background, while a young man stands silently in the center front, looking down on a grave (2013, acrylic and airbrush on linen, 182 x 152 cm, shown on invitation card). Inspired by the aesthetics of the male androgynous dandy, Hernan Bas constructs an account of adolescent exploration.
In other instances the suggested narratives may double as metaphors for a sexual and sensual awakening. Usually portrayed alone amidst their surroundings, the youths in Hernan Bas’s paintings reside in a utopian world of instinctive sensuality. The detailed surfaces of the exhibited paintings are full of vibrant colors layered in broad brushstrokes. Despite the large formats of his paintings, Hernan Bas continues to work without studio assistants, thus maintaining a maximum operating range. Recently, Hernan Bas has explored and expanded on printing techniques, which he combines with painting to add texture to his works. The exhibition is completed with the presentation of smaller works on paper, which address the same thematic realm.
Hernan Bas (born 1978 in Miami, US) has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions. On the occasion of his solo show “The other side” at Kunstverein Hannover, Germany, a catalogue was published which can be obtained through the gallery. Works by Hernan Bas were included in the Nordic Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale, curated by Elmgreen & Dragset in 2009. The artist has participated in recent group exhibitions including “Contemporary Magic: A Tarot Deck Art Project” at the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, and “The Cry” at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y Leon (MUSAC), 2011. His works can be found in numerous public and private collections, such as the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, or Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
A forthcoming monograph, published by Rizzoli, New York, will feature texts by Christian Rattermeyer and Jonathan Griffin, as well as an interview between Hernan Bas and Guggenheim deputy director Nancy Spector. The extensive and comprehensive anthology is set to be released in 2014.
For an upcoming project, Hernan Bas will install a cabinet of curiosities at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami November 2013. Diverging from his role as painter for once, the artist will display a selection from his extensive collection of rare objects in a unique-designed cabinet construction. Hernan Bas has been collecting curiosities for nearly a decade, amassing items from the 18th century to the present. The artist lives and works in Detroit, Michigan.
Deep in the Dark of Texas
30 August – 19 October 2013
It is with great delight that Galerie Peter Kilchmann announces Hernan Bas’s second solo show at the gallery. Hernan Bas will be showing new medium and large-format paintings on canvas and linen, and several works on paper. Hernan Bas created this new body of work during an artist residency at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. Marfa became an artist colony of sorts in the 1970s when Donald Judd moved there and founded the Chinati Foundation. Located in the Chihuahuan Dessert close to the Mexican border, Marfa is indeed deep in the dark of Texas, as the exhibition title implies.
Vast, sprawling landscapes have inhabited the paintings of Hernan Bas for some time now, so the impressions Bas gathered during his residency in Texas seem like a natural continuation of his theme.
The painting There’s just no point in crying accentuates the shimmering heat with the yellow and white horizon in the background, while a young man stands silently in the center front, looking down on a grave (2013, acrylic and airbrush on linen, 182 x 152 cm, shown on invitation card). Inspired by the aesthetics of the male androgynous dandy, Hernan Bas constructs an account of adolescent exploration.
In other instances the suggested narratives may double as metaphors for a sexual and sensual awakening. Usually portrayed alone amidst their surroundings, the youths in Hernan Bas’s paintings reside in a utopian world of instinctive sensuality. The detailed surfaces of the exhibited paintings are full of vibrant colors layered in broad brushstrokes. Despite the large formats of his paintings, Hernan Bas continues to work without studio assistants, thus maintaining a maximum operating range. Recently, Hernan Bas has explored and expanded on printing techniques, which he combines with painting to add texture to his works. The exhibition is completed with the presentation of smaller works on paper, which address the same thematic realm.
Hernan Bas (born 1978 in Miami, US) has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions. On the occasion of his solo show “The other side” at Kunstverein Hannover, Germany, a catalogue was published which can be obtained through the gallery. Works by Hernan Bas were included in the Nordic Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale, curated by Elmgreen & Dragset in 2009. The artist has participated in recent group exhibitions including “Contemporary Magic: A Tarot Deck Art Project” at the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, and “The Cry” at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y Leon (MUSAC), 2011. His works can be found in numerous public and private collections, such as the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, or Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
A forthcoming monograph, published by Rizzoli, New York, will feature texts by Christian Rattermeyer and Jonathan Griffin, as well as an interview between Hernan Bas and Guggenheim deputy director Nancy Spector. The extensive and comprehensive anthology is set to be released in 2014.
For an upcoming project, Hernan Bas will install a cabinet of curiosities at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami November 2013. Diverging from his role as painter for once, the artist will display a selection from his extensive collection of rare objects in a unique-designed cabinet construction. Hernan Bas has been collecting curiosities for nearly a decade, amassing items from the 18th century to the present. The artist lives and works in Detroit, Michigan.