Simon Hennessey
Simon Hennessey
Simon Hennessey's paintings are perceived as a reflection of reality but in truth the artwork transcends into its own abstraction of reality. Through using the camera as a visual source for painting, he is able to create false illusions that are judged as our own reality.
"Hennessey’s striking paintings reproduce images of facial features in extreme close-up. In a way it is like those television programmes in which we see only the eyes or the lips of some informant, in order to obscure their identity. Except that Hennessey is not trying to obscure identity so much as to depersonalise the people in his pictures. He wants us somehow to assess their characteristics entirely from a few physical clues.
"One recent work is a diptych which poses the question ‘Angelina: Saint or Sinner?’ The question is not so direct as it sounds. The left half of the face is in colour, the right in black-and-white. Do we think colour is the Devil’s work, while black-and-white implies documentary purity? A lot of people see it that way. But is not black-and-white more artificial in our everyday experience than colour? And in any case, do not both of them partake here of that ‘false sense of reality, a photoreality’? Hennessey wants us to consider such questions, and leaves the answers up to us."
From “Exactitude: Hyperrealism Today”, by John Russell Taylor (Plus One Publishing)
BORN: 1973, Birmingham, UK
EDUCATION:
2000-2003 BA (Hons) Fine Art, (1st Class),Solihull college, Solihull.
Validated by University of Central England.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2012 (September): ‘Photorealism’, Galerie de Bellefeuille- Montreal, Canada
2012 (July): ‘London’s Calling’, Plus One Gallery- London
2012 (February): ‘Hyperrealism Now’, PlusOneGallery-London
2012 (February): ‘Climate Change’, Metro gallery- Melbourne, Australia
2011 (September): ‘Celebrating 10 Years of Hyperrealism Today’, Plus One gallery- London
2011 (August): Scott Richards Contemporary Art- San Francisco, USA.
2011 (March): ‘In Focus’, Plus One Gallery- London
2010 (February): Winter show, Plus One Gallery- London
2009 (April): ‘Exactitude V’, PlusOneGallery-London
2008 (June): ‘Summer Show’, PlusOneGallery-London
2008 (April): ‘Simon Hennessey & David Finnegan’, Plus One Gallery- London
2007 (June): ‘Summer Show’, PlusOneGallery-London
2007 (February): ‘Birmingham Open 07’, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
2007 (January): ‘Gallery Artists’, PlusOneGallery-London
2006 (June): ‘Exactitude III’, PlusOneGallery-London
2005- “Art London 2005”, Chelsea.
2005- “The Art Lounge”, Manchester
2004 (November): ‘Open 04’, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists- Birmingham
2004 (September): ‘Realism Through a Lens’, Gallery Stratford
2004 (May): The Art house- Portsmouth
2004 (February): Food Glorious Food, Visual Arts Centre- Scunthorpe
2003 (November): ‘Open 03’, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists- Birmingham
2003 (September): ‘Eye Candy’, Surface gallery- Nottingham
2003 (March): ‘R U 4 Real…?’, Birmingham Repertory Theatre
2002 (December): ‘Prelude’, Solihull arts centre- Solihull
PUBLICATIONS
2012 (June)- Chinese magazine interview in: ‘Modern Weekly’
2012 (March)- Online article on hyper realist art in: ‘The Mirror’
2011 (January)- 12 paintings of women, 12 studio visits, online newspaper feature in: ‘The Huffington Post’
2010 (June)- : “Paintings so real looking, you won’t believe they weren’t taken with a camera” in: The Independent newspaper
2010 (May)- Artists and poets online magazine, O&S
2009 (April)- ‘Exactitude- Hyperrealist Art Today’, by John Russell Taylor. Thames and Hudson, Plus One Publishing.
2008 (April)- Feature and preview of Simon Hennessey & David Finnegan’s two person show in: ‘American Art Collector Magazine’
2006 (November)- ‘The London Connection’ in: ‘American Art Collector Magazine’
2006 (October)- ‘Art London’, catalogue.
2006 (June)- ‘Exactitude III’, catalogue.
2006 (June)- Article on Exactitude III Exhibition in: ‘The Birmingham Mail’
2006 (March)- Article on London’s affordable art fair, and artists to watch out for in: ‘The Times’
2004- Art review of ‘Realism Through a Lens’ (a 2 person show) in: ‘The Metro’
2003- Art feature in: ‘A & N magazine’
Statement
“My paintings are perceived as a reflection of reality but in truth the artwork transcends into its own abstraction of reality. Through using the camera as a visual source for painting I am able to create false illusions that are judged as our own reality.
“There are certain qualities produced by the camera that do not & cannot exist in our real world, they are only ever present in the digitized imagery of photography. The visual perceptions of a cameras lens generates a world of distortion in the basics of realism, such as the manipulation of focus, tonality, colour, depth and focal points, as a result presenting us with a false sense of reality: or a hyper reality.
“The reduplication and the transformation of media such as a photographic language into a painted language, produces a meticulous calculation within the process of change. Through the mimetic representation of a photographic source I am able to produce paintings that are capable of deceiving the human eye.
“My paintings content refers to identity, individuality, appearance and visual attitude. This is exposed through the process of physiognomy, the theory based upon the concept that the study and act of judging a persons outer appearance, primarily the face will give an insight into their personality or character. I add to the process of physiognomy through censorship and never giving the viewer the full content of the image. I regularly desaturate colour, crop, neutralize backgrounds or use a close focal point to present us with a distorted representation of an identity, therefore adding to this false sense of reality”.
(Statement 2)
My paintings may be viewed as a photographic representation of reality, but in truth my artwork transcends into its own abstraction of reality. I do not adhere too a true mimetic depiction of a photograph, I use the camera only as a source to assist me with gathering information.<p />
"My process of adding or removing detail, altering depth, textures, form and colour values and their relationships within the painting, allows me to create the illusion of a reality not seen in any photographic source. My paintings therefore appear clearer and more distinct than a photograph.<p />
"Constructing my own interpretations of reality results in blurring the boundaries of what is real and what is made up. I am thus presenting the viewer with a simulation or a Hyper-reality".