Uwe Henneken
Nihilbilly
March 31 – April 30, 2011
The Andrew Kreps Gallery is pleased to present the second exhibition in the gallery by Berlin-based artist Uwe Henneken. The seven paintings in the show are part of an ongoing series titled “Nihil”, which can be understood to describe the contradictory confrontation of familiar reality and imaginative void.
Desert and desertion are central themes throughout Uwe Henneken's work and is a dominant theme in the current show. And amongst the landscapes populated with abandoned houses, vacant settlements, and dead cities, he uses consciously blank space as a source of negation. But what Henneken enunciates is never a manifestation of hopelessness. There is a kind of spirituality that is embedded into the dystopian landscapes, which speak of their opposite: love, faith and hope.
Henneken has shown extensively internationally. He has had solo shows in institutions such as the Kunstverein Braunschweig, the Kunstmuseum Muelheim an der Ruhr both in Germany and at the Frans-Hals-Museum in Haalem, Netherlands. He has been included in group shows at the Aspen Art Museum, Marres Center for Contemporary Art, Maastricht, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and recently opened shows at The Breeder in Athens and Gisels Capitain in Berlin.