Hernan Bas creates paintings, works on paper, videos, and installations that weave together adolescent adventures with classical poetry, religious stories, mythology, the paranormal, and literature. Influenced by the Romantic era of the 18th century that glorified the sublime beauty of nature and the Decadent movement of the 19th century that evoked romantic nihilism, skepticism, excess, and artificiality, Bas’ early work often portrayed nearly hidden adolescent male figures, deep in contemplation amidst vast otherworldly landscapes. As the figure and the interiors they occupied became more and more prominent throughout Bas’ work, so did the social and cultural context within which they were living. Spanning a wide range of time periods and themes, Bas investigates inquisition, desire, and obsessions and invites the viewer to recognize their own curiosities and oddities.
Bas received a degree from the New World School of the Arts, Miami, in 1996. Solo exhibitions of his work have been organized by Yuz Museum, Shanghai; Space K, Seoul; Rubell Museum, Miami; SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah; Bass Museum of Art, Miami; and Kunstverein Hannover. Bas’ work is in the permanent collections of Brooklyn Museum; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; MoMA, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among many others.
[excerpted from Lehmann Maupin website: www.lehmannmaupin.com]