Overview
Alex Brewer Hense

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
Alex Brewer Hense
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