Henri Haake was born in Lübeck in 1989. He studied at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin from 2010-2016 under Professor Robert Lucander, spent a semester at Hunter College in New York City in 2013, and graduated with a Meisterschüler diploma in 2016. Henri Haake lives and works in Berlin, Germany. His pieces have been shown at numerous solo and group exhibitions.

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In his paintings and drawings Henri Haake uses familiar motifs seen from unfamiliar perspectives. The depicted scenes are everyday – universal even and easily accessible to all. People are the central element in his works. But rather than placing them centre stage, he often has them on the edge of the canvas; sometimes their faces are cut off, or their eyes are closed, or only parts of their body are visible. More centred, Haake often shows objects such as the corner of a table, airplane seats or a tiger rug. These compositions allow viewers to notice the connections between things rather than the things themselves, as well as the act of painting itself, in terms of objects, space and colour.

 

Haake draws on personal memory, what he sees online and observations of everyday life. But he doesn’t translate this with exactitude. Instead, he arrives at his works circuitously through a process of experimentation and error. A closer look at the paintings’ surfaces reveals different layers of paint and old subjects that shimmer through. Once Haake feels a painted subject has failed, he paints over it. It’s a cycle of production and destruction that is very important as it allows him to have a playful approach to ideas and to balance the cerebral with the sensual. The colours are key as they convey palpable emotion and lure the viewer into seeing something they may feel but can’t quite name. A view of life now – not as a confrontational stare, but as a sideways glance.

 

The paintings capture that which is typically bypassed. The small, unremarked incidents of day-to-day existence and human behaviour. His pictures reflect the mood of his generation and emit the solitude or disconnectedness we can feel as we move through the world. They are playful, fluid and a bit sly, as well as contemplative and occasionally melancholic.