“HENSE, who is an Atlanta-based artist, channels some of the energy and bricolage of the street to his paintings and drawings in Mark Making in Black and White. Paintings such as “Continued Days,” with its layers of black, white, and grey on panel, have the complexity and sense of time’s passage found in city wall palimpsests layered with decades of paint, advertisements and graffiti. Beneath the patterned surface of the painting — a repeated circuit of crescents — are splatters and drips that revel in the material of their creation. Showing a thrilling range, HENSE’s large paintings display an authoritative command of space. “Untitled” is a representative piece, as sprawling and complex as any cityscape seen from above; a landscape of dense, busy energy surrounded by vast open spaces and satellites of smaller bundles of activity.
But HENSE is far from a one-trick pony. His series of 6-inch-by-4-inch piquant, witty ink-and-graphite drawings conveys a sense of humor and play that isn’t so discernible in his paintings. These arch, concise works on paper look like some addled visionary’s napkin sketch of a harebrained idea. There is a souvlaki-like swirl of meaty activity suspended on a long, thin tether in one. A cloud of pollution floats to the top of another drawing. The cryptic little musings might be a message or just mania made concrete.”
Felicia Feaster - Creative Loafing
“Brewer employs silkscreen and gestural brushwork and doodly graphite coils in his paintings on wood and canvas. Marks skitter, swoop and loop like serpentine spaghetti across the otherwise airy surface of a particularly lovely untitled painting (No.14 on the checklist), piquantly dusted with confetti of tiny triangles and squares. Who would imagine that Brewer’s alter-ego is the street artist HENSE?”
Catherine Fox - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Casting a critical eye at graf writers is a little counterintuitive. We’re not about to impose a set of rules where they clearly don’t belong, but we do think HENSE’s works on overpasses, old buildings, railroad cars, rusty signage, and billboards over the past 15 years deserves recognition. The veteran street artist always turns out graceful, lively interactions that leave each urban surface he appropriates looking truly appreciated, including his bold — and authorized — Beltline mural off Ralph McGill Boulevard.”
Staff Pick - Best of Atlanta 2010 - Creative Loafing
About the Artist
Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, HENSE is a visual artist who has been applying paint to surfaces for almost two decades. He creates free-formed paintings and public mural installations using a combination of abstract lines, shapes and organic forms to produce compositions. The work has been described as a fluid, playful, explosion of pastels. The artist may best be known by his moniker, HENSE that been located in the public realm since he began his career in the early `90`s painting walls and writing graffiti in and around Atlanta. By 1999 his work could be found almost everywhere throughout the city, achieving what is known as an “all city status.”
He has painted in eleven cities in the United States and has produced exterior works abroad in Spain, France, Japan, Taiwan and Mexico. While continuing to move forward with his work in the urban landscape, he also adopted new techniques translating them to more obtainable surfaces. What was learned through working in public space, now includes various mediums such as print making, painting and public art installations.
HENSE`S work has been featured in numerous publications such as the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Juxtapoz Magazine and Mass appeal Magazine. His work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the United States and internationally in Tokyo, Taipei and Barcelona. Some of the Artist`s recent commissions include those created for AOL Orlando, Atlanta BeltLine Inc, Shops Around Lenox, Art Basel Miami, City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (forthcoming.) HENSE is represented by Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, Circa Gallery, Minneapolis and Known Gallery, Los Angeles.
For inquiries regarding the work or to obtain pricing and commission information, exhibition opportunities, installation or mural proposals, please use the contact section of this site.
HENSE currently lives and works in Atlanta GA.