Overview

Atlanta, USA, 1978

HENSE combines the quick pace and point-of-view of street culture with tumultuous compositions often characterized by highly keyed color, vertiginous line and biomorphic shapes.

Michael Rooks - Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the High Museum of Art

 

Alex Brewer, also known as HENSE, is an American contemporary artist, best known for his dynamic, vivid and colorful abstract paintings and monumental wall pieces. He utilizes unique color and composition in his installations to evoke a bold presence in the varied spaces they inhabit. Brewer, a native of Atlanta, Georgia began his career painting and writing on the walls around the city at a young age. He discovered his love for creating art in public spaces through graffiti in the 1990’s. He produces numerous public works worldwide through a combination of techniques learned through graffiti writing and the formal language of abstract painting.

 

Conscious of the supporting architecture, Brewer dramatically transforms his environments by re-creating existing objects and surfaces and infusing his work into the existing landscape. Best known for his works in the public area, Brewer applies the same processes and techniques in his public art as he does on his interior installations. Through wall drawings and a dialogue between various shapes, color and composition, his process produces larger-than-life abstractions creating textured surfaces and a layering of forms and color. Brewer employs a great deal of thought arranging the shapes he uses, inspiring dramatic compositions and gestures in his finished products. His use of unique colors and patterns, his play with shifting shapes and surfaces, and his intense line quality are a contemporary counterpart to the post-modern masters working in minimalism and abstract expressionism in the mid-twentieth century. Brewer’s use of simplified geometric forms, un-modulated color and hard-edges common in minimalism is perfectly paired with the spontaneous mark making that was common in abstract expressionism. These influences on Brewer’s work exemplify a comprehensive look at contemporary, abstract painting.

 

Brewer has received recognition as a contemporary abstract painter, exploring, color, form and material. His works in the realm of public art have garnered him national and international attention. He has also received numerous notable commissions internationally and throughout the United States. His largest commissioned work is in Lima, Peru amassing an impressive size of 137 feet tall and 170 feet wide.With the ability to transform a gallery space or City’s landscape, Brewer’s paintings can act as a unifying thread in a community. Brewer is always inspired by creative expression and process in the public realm and creates works that play an important role in the visual interactions and dialogue of a community.

Works
Biography
SOLO SHOWS | EXPOSICIONES INDIVIDUALES (selection)

2018 Interplay, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA

2017 Color, Balance & Form, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD.

2016 CUT, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA.

2015 MATERIAL, Library Street Collective, Detroit, MI

2014 INTERIOR EXTERIOR, Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, AL

2014 Drawings, Paintings and Shapes, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA

2013 Prints and Paintings, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA

2013 New Paintings, Maxwell Colette Gallery, Chicago, IL

2012 SPRAY, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA

2008 Soft Light, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA

 

GROUP SHOWS | EXPOSICIONES COLECTIVAS (selection)

2018 Urvanity Art Fair, Delimbo Gallery, Madrid, Spain.

2016 Abstraction Today, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta, GA.

2015 Vivid Bunch, Die Kunstagentin, Cologne, Germany.

2014 Abstract, BC Gallery, Berlin, Germany.

2014 The Shape of a Pocket, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA.

2014 Intuitionists, The Drawing Center, New York, NY.

2013 Exhibit Z, Library Street Collective, Detroit, MI.

2013 Graffiti Mash Up, Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA.

2013 Drawing Inside the Perimeter, Wall Drawing, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA.

2013 Graffuturism, Open Space Gallery, Paris, France.

2012 Skate it or Hang it, Museum of Design Atlanta MODA, Atlanta, GA.

2012 Off the Edge, Rialto Center For The Arts, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, Curated by Karen Comer Lowe.

2011 Art on the BeltLine, Exhibition of exterior public works along the BeltLine corridor, Atlanta, GA.

2011 Summer Group Show, Circa Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2011 Mark Making In Black And White, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA.

2010 Art on the BeltLine, Exhibition of exterior public works along the BeltLine corridor, Atlanta, GA.

2009 Freedom, Known Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.

2009 New Paintings, Lawrence Savage Gallery, Miami, FL.

2007 Experimental Prints on Paper, Beep Beep Gallery, Atlanta, GA.

2007 Hambidge Art Auction, Puritan Mill, Atlanta, GA, Curated by Comer Art Advisory.

2007 Royal Elastics & The Seventh Letter Crew present "Letters First", Curated by Known Gallery, Bread & Butter Tradeshow, Barcelona, Spain.

2007 New Paintings, Function, Decatur, GA.

2007 Drawing Outside The Lines, Rialto Center For The Arts, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, Curated by Comer Art Advisory.

2007 Drawings, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA.

2006 Lights Out, Scion Dashboard Gallery, San Francisco, CA.

2005 Letters First Traveling Group Exhibition, RBK Concept Store - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, CA - Tokyo, Japan - Taipei, Taiwan.

2005 Writers vs. Riders, Upper Playground Gallery, San Francisco, CA.

2005 Another Witty Remark, The Canvas Gallery, San Francisco, CA.

2005 Environmentalists, Mason Murer Fine Art, Atlanta, GA.

2004 Blurry, Retromodern, Atlanta, GA.

2003 A Collective Effort, The Forum, Atlanta, GA.

2003 Krylon and Beyond II, YoungBlood Gallery, Atlanta, GA.

2002 Mixed Media Installation, 55DSL, Diesel Store, Union Square, New York, NY.

2002 Krylon and Beyond, YoungBlood Gallery, Atlanta, GA.

 

Selected Collections | Obra en colecciones

High Museum of Art

Facebook Inc

Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art

Meditech

Langham Hotel, Pasadena, CA

DLA Piper LLC

Hilton Hotels

Novartis

Holder Construction

PRPL Digital Creative Agency

 

Public Art | ARTE PÚBLICO

2019 Overlapping and Intersecting Forms with Tangent Lines, Commissioned by the City of Toulouse for the Rose Beton Biennale, Toulouse, France.

2018 Ragusa Sun, Liceo Scientifico E. Fermi, Festiwall, Ragusa, Sicily.

2017 Building Blocks, Cultural Trail Mural, Commissioned by the City of Hagerstown, Hagerstown, MD.

2016 Tuscawilla Park Mural Project, Commissioned by the Appleton Museum of Art and City of Ocala, Ocala, FL.

2016 PUBLIC 2016, Albany, Western Australia.

2015 City Leaks Contemporary Urban Art Festival, Cologne, Germany.

2015 Very Fun Park, Curated and Commissioned by Fubon Art Foundation, Taipei, Taiwan.

2015 CBH Group grain silos, PUBLIC 2015, curated by FORM, Northam, Western Austraila.

2014 INTERIOR/EXTERIOR, Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, AL.

2014 Madison Theater Building, Detroit, MI.

2014 Living Walls: The City Speaks Conference, Atlanta, GA.

2014 Atlanta BeltLine Public Art Program, Atlanta, GA.

2014 Columbus State University, Wall Mural, Commissioned by the Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley with the Art Beat Fund, Curated and organized by Columbus State University and Uptown Columbus, Columbus, GA.

2013 LOVE, Sculpture installation, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA.

2013 ISIL Institute, Mural, funded by ISIL and organized by Morbo Gallery and ISIL, Lima, Peru.

2012 700 Delaware, Public Mural on Historic Church, Washington DC.

2012 South Broad Mural Project, City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs, Atlanta, GA.

2012 Canal Walk, RVA Festival Mural, Richmond, VA.

2012 City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs, Arizona Avenue Mural, Atlanta, GA.

2011 Atlanta BeltLine Public Art Program, Atlanta, GA.

2011 Shops Around Lenox, Murals, Atlanta, GA.

2010 Atlanta BeltLine Public Art Program, Atlanta, GA.

2010 Art Basel, Wall Murals, Miami, FL.

2010 Artist Project, Mural, Oyster, VA.

2009 Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Wall Mural, Atlanta, GA.

Exhibitions