Henri Haake
@henrihaakehttps://www.henrihaake.de/
Born 1989 in Lübeck. Lives and works in Berlin.
From 2010-2016 he studied at the UdK (University of Arts) Berlin and at Hunter College in New York City in 2013. Being mentored by Professor Robert Lucander, he graduated with a Meisterschüler diploma (MA) in 2016. His works were shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions.
The beauty of the everyday and the ambivalence of ease and severity in life is the major topic in Henri Haakes works. In his artistic process he deals with questions like: what is the human?; what drives or burdens them?; and how is one socially intertwined with the environment? Daily observations in public places and in digital spheres as well as images of his own memory result in a variety of ideas and starting points. His various drawings and paintings unclose a world of memory and presence in which he surveys the irrevocable beauty of the everyday. In form and content Haake diverges between humoresque portrayal and melancholic subjects; however a peculiar energetic coloration emerges in all of his works. People are portrayed while pursuing ordinary activity. Oftentimes the figures seem to be cut or covert whereby they manage to skirt the recipient’s gaze. These cut-out’s and zoom-in’s remind us of smartphone images, quick photos that have been taken by accident or with delay. The interdependence of privacy and public is an occurrent theme in Haakes works whereby borders of evident insight and voyeuristic superficiality blur.
Henri Haakes paintings and drawings manifest a simple though deeply impenetrable construct of form, space and color - an antagonistic world of imagination and reality, haptic enjoyment and delight of the human: an ode to the simple beauty of everyday life.
From 2010-2016 he studied at the UdK (University of Arts) Berlin and at Hunter College in New York City in 2013. Being mentored by Professor Robert Lucander, he graduated with a Meisterschüler diploma (MA) in 2016. His works were shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions.
The beauty of the everyday and the ambivalence of ease and severity in life is the major topic in Henri Haakes works. In his artistic process he deals with questions like: what is the human?; what drives or burdens them?; and how is one socially intertwined with the environment? Daily observations in public places and in digital spheres as well as images of his own memory result in a variety of ideas and starting points. His various drawings and paintings unclose a world of memory and presence in which he surveys the irrevocable beauty of the everyday. In form and content Haake diverges between humoresque portrayal and melancholic subjects; however a peculiar energetic coloration emerges in all of his works. People are portrayed while pursuing ordinary activity. Oftentimes the figures seem to be cut or covert whereby they manage to skirt the recipient’s gaze. These cut-out’s and zoom-in’s remind us of smartphone images, quick photos that have been taken by accident or with delay. The interdependence of privacy and public is an occurrent theme in Haakes works whereby borders of evident insight and voyeuristic superficiality blur.
Henri Haakes paintings and drawings manifest a simple though deeply impenetrable construct of form, space and color - an antagonistic world of imagination and reality, haptic enjoyment and delight of the human: an ode to the simple beauty of everyday life.
