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 now lives and works in Berlin, Germany. His pieces have been shown at numerous solo and group exhibitions.

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It’s a new perspective, a strange angle of how we look at everyday scenarios we discover in Henri Haake’s work. Daily observations in public places and in digital spheres as well as images of his own memory result in a variety of scenarios. Oftentimes people are portrayed while pursuing ordinary activities like standing on an escalator, sitting at a table or driving a car. A very peculiar perspective and the uncommon composition that Haake uses differ from other painters of his genre. Sometimes we find ourselves too close to the pictured. Or the view is unexpectedly slightly from above, almost like a bird’s eye view. People and faces are occasionally cut-off; they have their eyes closed, hide their gaze behind what has been painted or even outside the canvas. Some of the compositions echo smartphone photos we all take in our everyday lives. In Haake’s paintings we sense an idea of the artist’s perception of the world. The works emanate a certain mesmerizing tranquillity. The images are at once playful in their humorous approach, and well as contemplative or even melancholic. In his works Haake scrutinizes nothing less than everyday life and finds a way to portray both the ease and gloom of living. Above it is the pictures’ existentialistic tendency we see, which is contiguous to the question of beauty. 

 

Taking a step toward the actual surface of the paintings we can see different layers of paint. Old parts of subjects that have been painted over shimmer through as Haake, once he feels a painted subject has failed, doesn’t hesitate to do away with it. This dynamic process of production and destruction is an immanent part of his artistic method. Subjects he likes, he reintroduces in different formats, shapes and colour in order to experiment with his initial idea and to see how a thought can be realized in different ways. A very distinct coloration is an important theme in Haake’s work that binds all the pieces together.

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The interdependence between what is private and what is public is an occurrent theme in Haake’s works, whereby the line between insight and voyeuristic superficiality gets blurred. The recipient enters a dreamlike world of memory and imagination that confronts the viewer with their own reality. At the same time, Haake’s works deal a lot with the spontaneity of painting, haptic enjoyment and the simple beauty of the everyday. The struggle of old and new, nature and technology, feminine and masculine intermingle. Eventually we distinguish the work not only as a counterweight against the complexity and speed of our time but furthermore as an assistance, a comrade or a pace that allows us to think of our lives in a different way.

prices

 

2016                 Knispel Preis für Malerei und Zeichnung

group exhibitions (selected)

 

2021                IN A MOMENT OF TIME, Ausstellung der                                             Jahresgaben, Kunstverein Arnsberg

                        group show, OFFICE IMPART, Berlin

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2019                Haake - Poznanska, KM28, Berlin

                        WHAT'S LEFT FROM PARADISE, Rundgänger,                                     Frankfurt am Main

                        all out "small" closing, KWADRAT, Berlin

                        Kommunizierende Röhren, Salon René Holm, Berlin 

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2018                Demi-gros, Save Gallery, Berlin

                        That´s all right mama, XXY-Raum für Kunst, Berlin

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2017                Unexpectations 2 - Wo die Blumen sind, Atrium                                   Tower, Berlin

                        Warum bin ich eigentlich Deutscher,

                        Kunstverein Wiesen

 

2016                Berlin Masters, A3 Arndt Art Agency, Berlin

                        Meisterschülerausstellung, Universität der Künste,                             Berlin

                        Dialog der Residuen- Henri Haake & Jeewi Lee,                                 Galerie Villa Köppe, Berlin 

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2015                _ndo, Museum Jorge Rando, Málaga

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2014                Umwandlung, Quer-Gallery UDK, Berlin

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2013                Open Studio, Hunter College, New York City

                        Nachschlag, Uferhallen Wedding, Berlin

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2012                Berlin-London, Gutshaus Erlenbach, Zürich

solo exhibitions

 

2018                Panorama, Studio Dapontegasse, Wien

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2012                Roter Rauch, Manzoni Schäper, Berlin

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2010                Gleichzeitigkeit, Color Works, Lübeck