Henrietta Harris, is a New Zealand based artist who explores, the human condition, through a muted, soft and weightless palette. The faces in her paintings are often of young subjects, with gleaming eyes, filled with a sense of hope and confusion. As a result her paintings, as physical objects breathe life, conveying all the vulnerabilities and truths that are deeply obvious in each frozen face that she has left for us to explore.
In her process Harris decides on each portrait as she primes the canvas. Her paintings although formal do not come from preliminary drawings or sketches, but rather, find their way into existence simply by an undetermined process, where color meets the canvas.
Consistent throughout her body of work, including those in her newest solo exhibition Second Best Henrietta’s style and mission as a painter is that of a story teller. Documenting and distorted faces and personalities are of particular curiosity to her mission. In her own words: my paintings represent a stream of consciousness.
Opening reception will be held Saturday, November 9 from 7 to 9 p.m. during Wynwood’s Second Saturday Art Walk. The exhibit will be on view November 9 through November 20.
About Henrietta Harris
Henrietta Harris is an Auckland-born artist and painter known for her series of distorted watercolor and gouache portraits. Through amazing technical skills, she makes memorable faces characterized by clean brushstrokes. Seemingly caught in moments of a romantic introspection bordering on spiritual transcendence, Harris’ subjects dissolve into swirls, scribbles, and line. Her inspiring, mutable and memorable portraits, hands, faces, brains, glaciers seem to float away from each other, reminding viewers of those moments when your body is present but your mind drifts away to another place far away with the reality that you are in. Her pastel-toned watercolors are calling the person in front of them for closer examination, promising a trip to borderless landscapes, stripped from time and space.
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