Stephen Henriques

Stephen Henriques, a participant of the Bay Area artistic community, comes from San Francisco, that colorful and foggy city. Suddenly the fog sweeps down, throws a veil over the landscape while at the same time revealing all, the trees, the woods, the bay, the people, and just as suddenly as it swoops down, it vanishes into thin air. Henriques has developed a language in his painting that is closely linked to jazz, his passion ever since his childhood. These roots - so profoundly American - also impregnate his art, imbued with the foggy yet multicolored scenarios of the city. One may say that the artist is neither figurative nor abstract. The images rise to the surface inspired by jazz, a musical form so conducive to the creative impulse.

Another characteristic has contributed to the joyful chromatic force of his art in which figures emerge from the hues of mist and assume a density in splashes of color, taking on contours and identity then evanesce once more, dissolving into small multicolored stains or splashes where the drippings and the flux and flow of paint are not uncommon. He not only incites jazz cerebrally in his fluid syncopated paintings, with bold strokes of the spatula, he also mirrors the organic vibrant rhythms of jazz in the spirit of his work. At another level, the imaginary world of the artist is inhabited by personae of the coterie of jazz clubs and groups where the musicians emerge with their instruments, their clothes, their typical gestures and stances - and frequently feminine figures can be discerned, or pairs intertwined, dancing.

The work of Stephen Henriques is unique - a watershed. Before him the history of modern and contemporary art offers some examples of art created under the impact of music. Henriques goes far beyond this: he integrates music and the imaginary world of jazz in his work. In each canvas we can perceive a musical and pictorial narrative that is at the same time seductive and refined.

Daisy Peccinini
Art Critic - ABCA-AICA
Curator - Museu de Arte Contemporânea - Universidade de São Paulo


[...Paintings]

Education

1970 M.F.A. San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1967 B.F.A. San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA


Solo Exhibitions

2006 "Inspired by Jazz", Festival Amazonas Jazz, Manaus, Brazil
2005 Galeria de Arte A Hebraica, São Paulo, Brazil
2003 Expoarte Galeria, Brasília, Brazil
2003 Casa Thomas Jefferson, Brasília, Brazil
2002 Arvani Arte, São Paulo, Brazil
1998 Bennett Street Gallery, Atlanta, GA
1998 Adolfo's Restaurant, San Francisco, CA
1998 Fizz Supper Club, San Francisco, CA
1997 Stevenson Place, San Francisco, CA
1996 3COM Corporation, Santa Clara, CA
1995 Borders Books and Music, San Francisco, CA
1993 Workplace Gallery, New York, NY
1990 Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1988 The French Culinary Institute, New York, NY
1986 Art Concepts, Walnut Creek, CA
1982 Gastonbury Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1981 Studio Showing, San Francisco, CA
1979 Studio Showing, San Francisco, CA
1976 Market Hours Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1975 Palo Alto Culture Center, Palo Alto, CA
1975 Lawson Galleries, San Francisco, CA
1970 San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1970 Crown College, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA


E-Mail:  sh@stephenhenriques.com
More informationen:  www.stephenhenriques.com