Background
Hernan Bas was born in 1978, in Miami, Florida, United States.
25 NE 2nd St, Miami, FL 33132, United States
In 1996, Bas finished his education at New World School of the Arts in Miami.
30 Cooper Sq, New York, NY 10003, United States
Bas attended the Cooper Union for one semester.
Hernan Bas was born in 1978, in Miami, Florida, United States.
Hernan began creating paintings at about three or four years old. Then, he attended the art magnet program in the Miami public school system. In 1996, Bas finished his education at the New World School of the Arts in Miami. He also attended the Cooper Union for one semester.
Bas grew up in Florida and was struck by the superficial obsession with idealized male bodies in Miami in the 1980's and 1990's. Addressing such vanity, Bas made his early paintings with the diet drink Slim Fast. In "Slim Fast Silhouette" (1999–2000), a thin young man sits with a finger outstretched, his body rendered in splotchy browns. The series' inclusion in a landmark exhibition, titled "Making Art in Miami: Travels in Hyperreality" (2000) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, launched Bas' career.
Male beauty is paramount to Bas' figurative paintings. Stirred by the romance and sentimentalism of 19th-century writers like Oscar Wilde and Joris-Karl Huysmans, the artist's work is particularly concerned with the "dandy" figure - a young, effeminate and handsome man - whom he renders often lounging with a blank expression in luxuriant settings.
In 2001, Hernan held his first solo exhibition, titled "Hernan's Merit and the Nouveau Sissies", in a commercial art gallery - Fredric Snitzer Gallery. Later, in 2004, his work was featured at the Whitney Biennale at the Whitney Museum in New York City.
In 2005, Hernan received a fellowship to Giverny, France, where he worked as an artist-in-residence on Claude Monet's estate. The same year, he took part in two group exhibitions, such as "The Triumph of Painting: Part III" at the Saatchi Gallery in London, England, and "Ideal Worlds, New Romanticism In Contemporary Art", at the Schirn Kunsthalle, in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2007, Bas had a major presentation at the Rubell Family Collection in Miami, which travelled to the Brooklyn Art Museum in 2008. In 2009, Hernan took part in the group exhibition, entitled "the Collectors", curated by Elmgreen & Dragset for the Nordic and Danish Pavilions, at the 53rd Venice Biennale. The following year, in 2010, Bas relocated his studio from Miami to Detroit.
The year 2012 was a fairly busy period for Hernan, as he had shows in New York, at the Lehman Maupin Gallery, in Paris, at Galerie Perrotin, as well as in South Korea. In 2013, Bas presented the multi-media installation, "TIME, Hernan Bas: a queer and curious cabinet", at the Bass Museum of Art, Miami, Florida.
In the years, that followed, Hernan participated in other important group exhibitions, including "Future Seasons Past" at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York City (2015), "Wild n Out" at PKM Gallery, Seoul, South Korea (2017), "Them" at Perrotin Gallery, New York City (2019), among others. Also, the artist's other solo exhibitions include those, organized by the Bass Museum of Art, Miami, Florida; SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia; Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine, among others.
Currently, Hernan lives and works in Detroit, Michigan. Despite the fact, that he identifies himself as a painter, he also works with such art media, as film and photography. In addition to portraiture, Bas creates byzantine and eerie landscapes.
The Sip In
Unisex (or, the accidental earrings)
The Boy who Fell for the Fall
Don't tell it on the Mountain
The signalmen
The dragon's eyes
His is the only known species to mimic a flower
The case for Mullerian Mimicry
The Gourd Nest Hanger
The 2014 Mr. General Idea Pageant
Untitled
Untitled L #496
Endymion
Private Bouquet (1)
The Last Song
Slim Kiss
DON'T EVER SAY ANYTHING TO ANYONE
Slim Fast Silhouette
Children of the Sunflower
The soap box in his mind
Hernan Bas' work, as he stated, was influenced by the lives of saints and the paranormal. He cited Oscar Wilde, Charles Baudelaire and Joris-Karl Huysman as his inspirations as well. Bas also states, that most part of his inspiration comes from the past and he does not pay attention to much contemporary work.
It's also worth mentioning, that Hernan draws inspiration from Miami, the city, where he was grown up. His other inspirations include Joseph Beuys' use of painting with fat, as well as the Felix Gonzalez-Torres' candy piles in his early work with Slim Fast, allowing his viewers to take a cup of Slim Fast with them. While creating his works, Bas often "mixes" his influences in order to create something of his own.
Furthermore, Bas finds inspiration in youth and goth culture, fashion layouts and books for boys - the Hardy Boys and Boy Scout manuals - as well as Moby-Dick and the film Carrie.
Bas has also been influenced significantly by his homosexuality.
Bas is openly gay. He is fond of the paranormal and attributes it to his life in Florida, the state, where he was reared. Hernan described his growing up there as "kind of like living in the "X-Files".