Hernan Bas
Born: 1978
Hometown: Miami, FL
Lives and Works: Detroit
Education:
New World School of Arts, Miami, FL, 1996
About The Artist
Hernan Bas explores the world of homoerotic art with a wink and a nod to a traditional Romantic painting style. He often employs Gothic themes, combinations of romance and horror that are wrought with a sexual tension that conveys quiet emotion as opposed to hyper eroticism. In each work, Bas tells a tale that illustrates an intense sensitivity toward his subject.
Darkly playful and melancholic, Bas’s work references literature from Moby Dick to the Hardy Boys to French Romantic writing, reimagining them in terms of the young homosexual dandy. The mood of his art alludes to aspects of Decadence—a movement associated with Oscar Wilde and artists who favored art and artifice over Romantic description—and nihilism—the philosophy that all values are baseless. Bas says, “What’s the harm in signing over your soul for the sake of love if you don’t believe in hell, or if you do, you’ll be going there anyway for kissing boys?”
Galleries
Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY
Victoria Miro Gallery, London, England
Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
Sandroni Rey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
Select Permanent Collections
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
New Britian Museum of American Art, New Britian, CT
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
Samuso: Sapce for Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Works by the Artist
