Born in 1978 in Miami, Florida, USA
Lives and works in Miami, Florida, and Detroit, Michigan, USA
Hernan Bas’s expressionist and highly detailed figurative paintings are openly inspired by late-nineteenth-century decadent art and literature, as well as the concurrent symbolist and decorative style of the French group Les Nabis. Though aesthetically grounded in the iconography of the male androgynous dandy, the young protagonists of his oneiric visions are usually portrayed alone or in small groups, in attitudes of pure flânerie. Whether confined to the intimacy of a genre scene or lost in the vertigo of a dense, lush, romantic landscape, they inhabit a fantasized world of implicit eroticism and ambiguous sensuality. Always appearing as if suspended in time, between adolescence and adulthood, they embody a fragile in-between state that the artist refers to as “fag limbo.” With a flamboyant palette and a refined touch, Bas revisits and reinterprets, in masterly fashion, the various categories of classical painting from a homoerotic perspective that is seemingly melancholic yet often humorous and witty.
education
1996 New World School of the Arts, Miami, FL
solo shows
2020
- Creature Comforts, Perrotin, Paris, France
2019
- TIME LIFE, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY
2018
- A Brief Intermission, Centro De Arte Contemporáneo Málaga, Málaga, Spain
- Hernan Bas: The Paper Crown Prince and Other Works, Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
- Insects from Abroad, Galerie Perrotin, Tokyo, Japan
2017
- Cambridge Living, Victoria Miro, Mayfair, London, United Kingdom
- Bloomsbury Revisited, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
- Florida Living, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA
2016
- A Tropical Depression, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
- Bright Young Things, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY
2015
- Fruits and Flowers, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
2014
- New Perfumes, Larger Blossoms, Pleasures Untasted. Hernan Bas and the Natural World: Selections from the Rubell Collection, YoungArts Gallery, Miami, FL
- Haunted Objects, Marfa Book Company, Marfa, TX
- Case Studies, Lehmann Maupin, Hong Kong
- Hernan Bas: Memphis Living, Victoria Miro, London, United Kingdom
2013
- TIME, Hernan Bas: a queer and curious cabinet, Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL
- Deep in the Dark of Texas, Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
- Boys in Peril?, Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
2012
- Thirty-six Unknown Poets, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
- A brief suspension of disbelief, PKM Trinity Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
- Occult Contemporary, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY
- The other side, Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover, Germany, cur. René Zechlin
2011
- Delicate Creatures from America, Galleria Il Capricorno, Venice, Italy
- Perennial Affairs, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
- The Forest for the Trees, Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
2010
- Considering Henry, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
- The Hallucinations of Poets, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, United Kingdom
- Hernan Bas: A Fairy’s Tale, PKM Gallery/Bartleby Bickle & Meursault, Seoul, Korea
2009
- In the land of make me believe, Galleria II Capricorno, Venice
- The Dance of the Machine Gun & other forms of unpopular expression, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY
- Hernan Bas: Works from the Rubell Family Collection, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY
2008
- Ask the Sky, Sandroni Rey, Los Angeles, CA
- The Unexplained, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
2007
- Hernan Bas: works from the Rubell Family Collection, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
- Evening Amusements, The Fireplace Project, East Hampton, NY
- Saints and Secret Sects, Galleria IL Capricorno, Venice
- Saints and Secret Sects, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
- Mephistopheles at 17, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
2006
- The Great Barrier Wreath, Sandroni Rey, Los Angeles, CA
- A Silent Dirge, Galleria II Capricorno, Venice, Italy
- Dandies, Pansies and Prudes, Daniel Reich Gallery, New York, NY
2005
- Once Upon A Time…, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
- Hernan Bas: New Works on Paper, Daniel Reich Gallery, New York, NY
- In the Low Light, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2004
- Soap Operatic, The Moore Space, Miami, FL
- As if a Phantom Carres’d me, Sandroni Rey, Los Angeles, CA
- Sometimes with One I Love, Daniel Reich Gallery, New York, NY
- We May Even See the Wind Together, Schmidt Center Gallery, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL
2003
- We May Even See the Wind Together, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
2002
- First Comes the Blood, Then Come the Boys, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
- Love in Vein, Sandroni Rey, Los Angeles, CA
- It’s Super Natural, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL
2001
- Hernan’s Merit & the Nouveau Sissies, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
2000
- Slim Fast, Frances Wolfson Gallery, Miami Dade Community College, Miami, FL
group shows
2020
- Kaleidoscopes: Contemporary Portraiture, Perotin, Hong Kong, China
2019
- Them, Perrotin, New York, NY
- Through Painter's Eyes: Hernan Bas and Ioan Sbârciu, Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- My Kids Could Do That, ProjectArt, Miami, FL
- Les Enfants du Paradis, Eldorado, Lille3000, MUba EUGÈNE LEROY, Tourcoing, France, cur. Jérôme Sans and
Jean-Max Colard
- Where is the Madness You Promised Me?, HVMocA, Peekskill, NY
- Works on Paper, Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen, Denmark
- They Gaze, James Fuentes Gallery, New York, NY
2018
- Contemporary Magic: A Tarot Deck Art Project, Art Capsul, New York, NY
- Still Crazy 1977-2017, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
- Through Painters' Eyes, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- People, Places, Things, Dru Arstark Fine Art, New York, NY
- Nothing Pretty: A Selection of Drawings from the Collection of Paul Rickert, George Lawson Gallery, Emeryville, CA
2017
- Engender, Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
- Wild n Out, PKM Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
- Generation Loss, Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf, Germany
- On the Horizon: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL
- Alien Nations, Lehman College Art Gallery, London, United Kingdom
- House Work, Victoria Miro, London, United Kingdom
- Hernan Bas & Teresita Fernandez, Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL
2016
- A Sum of its Parts, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL
- Progressive Praxis, de la Cruz Collection, Miami, FL
- Go Figure!, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
- Tempest, Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
2015
- Tracing Shadows, PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
- Future Seasons Past, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY
- Love: The First of the 7 Virtues, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Hudson, NY
- Seinfeld [a show about nothing], Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
2014
- Horror Story: Eight Artists Engage with Mass Culture through Traumatic Imagery, Paulson Fontaine Press, Berkeley, CA
2013
- Suddenness + Certainty, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY
- Aquatopia: The imaginary of the ocean deep, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, United Kingdom
- 25 Years Galerie Perrotin, Tri Postal, Lille, France
- Cinematic Visions, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, United Kingdom
- Hernan Bas, Anne Chu, Klara Kristalova, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY
- On Painting, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Les Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
- Nightfall: New tendencies in figurative painting, Galerie Rudolfinum, Czech Republic, Prague
- Summer Show, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY
- From the Collection: Looking at Process, de la Cruz Collection, Miami, FL
2012
- Nightfall, MODEM Center for Contemporary Art, Debrecen, Hungary
- Landscape, Hite Collection, Seoul, Korea
- I Followed You into the Water, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York
- Paintings from the Rubell Family Collection, Fundación Banco Santander, Madrid, Spain
- To Have a Voice, Makintosh Gallery, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, United Kingdom
2011
- The Cry, Musac Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain, cur. María Inés Rodriguez & Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy
- Contemporary Magic: A Tarot Deck Art Project, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, cur. Stacy Engman
- Nothing in the World But Youth, Turner Contemporary, Margate, Kent, United Kingdom
- Hernan Bas & Artur Zmijewski, Gallery Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
2010
- In the company of Alice, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
- Tauba Auerbach, Matthew Day Jackson, R.H. Quaytman, etc., Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
- Love in Vein: Editions Fawbush projects and artists 2005-2010, Gering and Lopez Gallery, New York, NY
- Five in Istanbul: A selection of artists from Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Borusan Muzik EVI, Istanbul, Turkey
- Father, Mendes Wood, Sao Paulo, Brazil, cur. Diego Singh
- Make Believe, Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm, Sweden
- Lush Life 3: Fast Bird (A Few Butterflies), Invisible-Exports, New York, NY, cur. Franklin Evans & Omar Lopez-Chahoud
- Boy, Oh Boy!, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
2009
- The Collectors, 53rd Venice Biennale, Nordic and Danish Pavillions, Italy, cur. Elmgreen & Dragset
- Wunderland: Through the Looking Glass, KadE, Amersfoot, The Netherlands
- SMALL, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
- Recent Acquisitions, Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL
- Dilettantes, Dandies and Divas, Gavlak, West Palm Beach, FL
2008
- With You I Want to Live, Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Exhibitions 21: Selections from the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY
- 6th Busan Biennale, Korea
-The Dulcet Clime of the Bedchamber, Goff + Rosenthal, Berlin, Germany, cur. Nicholas Weist
- Miami Comes to the Hamptons, Snitzer - Arregui Project, East Hamptons, New York
- (i-murj:d), Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
-The Boys of Summer, The Fireplace Project, East Hamptons, New York, cur. Shelly Fox Aarons and Edsel Williams
2007
- Titled/Untitled: a collaborative exhibition featuring work from the Devonshire collection & Rubell collection, Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore, Ireland
- Intimacy, Contemporary Art After Nine Eleven, Triennale DI Milano, Milan, Italy
- Like Color in Pictures, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO
- Size Matters (Part 1, XS-recent small-scale paintings), Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY
2006
- Paraisos Artificiales, Pillar Parra & Romero Galeria De Arte, Madrid, Spain
- Breathing Time: Works from the Debra & Dennis Scholl collection Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
- Girlpower and Boyhood, Talbot Rice Gallery (in conjuction with Kunsthallen Brandts), University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Panic Room: works from the Dakis Joannou collection, Deste Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece
- Figuring the Landscape, Contemporary Art Galleries, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
- Mixed Emotions, Haifa Museum of Art, Israel
- Think Warm: Miami Draws for You, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
- The Garden Party, Deitch Projects, New York
2005
- Recent Acquisitions, LA MOCA, Los Angeles, CA
- Triumph of Painting – Part III, The Saatchi Gallery, London, United Kingdom
- New Figuration, Galleri Christina Wilson, Copenhagen, Denmark
- MoCA and Miami, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
- Little Odysseys, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
- Ten, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
- Ideal Worlds: New Romanticism in Contemporary Art, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
- Situational Prosthetics, New Langston Arts, San Francisco, CA, cur. Nate Lowman
2004
- Galleon and Other Stories, Saatchi Gallery, London, United Kingdom
- Origins of Harold, Deitch Projects, New York, NY
- Miami Nice, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
- Happy Days Are Here Again, David Zwirner, New York, NY
- Heavenly Creatures, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropec, Salzburg, Austria
- Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
- The Drawing Show, The Green Barn, Sagaponack
- Painting 2004, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, United Kingdom
- Obituary, Placemaker, Miami, FL
- Lock Stock and Barrel, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami
- The 6th Annual Altoids Curiously Strong collection, Consolidated Works, Seattle, WA, traveling to Arthouse, Austin, TX, Pennsylvania Academy of Art, Philadelphia, PA and The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY
2003
- Women Beware Women, Deitch Projects, New York, cur. David Rimanelli
- Summer Romance, Sandroni Rey, Venice, CA
- Today’s Man, John Connelly Presents, New York, traveled to Hiromi Yoshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
- Imagine: Selections from the Permanent Collection, MoCA, North Miami, FL
- Made in Miami, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
- New Art, Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Lake Worth, FL
- American Art Today: Faces and Figures, The Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, FL
2002
- Drawing Conclusions, Buena Vista Building, Miami, FL, cur. Nina Arias
- In the Place of Revolution, The Great Hall, Cooper Union, New York, NY
- AOP002: The 37th Art on Paper Exhibition, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
- Friends and Family, Lombard-Fried Fine Art, New York, NY
- Dangerous Beauty, The Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, New York, NY
- Champion, Zinc Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
2001
- Fast Forward Projects, the Nash Hotel Art Fair, Miami, FL
- Humid, Moore Space, Miami, FL, cur. Dominic Molon
- Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL
2000
- Making art in Miami: Travels in Hyperreality, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL, cur. Bonnie Clearwater
- Robot, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
- Ob-la-di-Ob-la-da, Art Center/South Florida, Miami Beach, FL, cur. Gean Moreno
- Young Miami, Wooster Projects, New York, NY
-The Home Show, 890 NE 90th Street, Miami, FL
- Departing Perspectives, Espirito Santo Building, Miami, FL
1999
- Wish You Were Here, Box Forum, Miami, FL
- TRANScontinENTal Galerie, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Superfantastic 7, The Dirt Room, Kansas City, MO
1998
- The Fashion Issue: four simple steps towards younger looking skin, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
1997
- Frank: an adj...Connoting Superfantastic, Baltimore, MD
- Group Show, Ambrosino Gallery, Miami, FL
public collections
- Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
- Detroit Institute of Arts, MI
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
- Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
- Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
- Saatchi Collection, London, GB
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
- Hirschorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
- Carré d'Art - Musée d'Art Contemporain, Nimes, FR
- Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
- New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
- Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
- Samuso: Space for Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
- Williams College, Williamstown, MA
awards
2002
- Rerna Hort Foundation Grant, New York, NY
2001
- Deans Fellowship, Columbia University, New York, NY
1999
- Mc Cullogh Award for Painting, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Matching Fellowship, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
