Chris BERENS
BIO
Chris Berens (Oss, 1976) studied illustration at the Academy of Art and Design in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, graduating in 1999.
Berens developed a complex and time consuming painting technique as a way to achieve the result he aimed: with the initial idea for a new work, Chris paints every detail over and over on the coated layer of a glossy paper. All his works are hand painted. He uses ink and different types of varnish. He then cuts out fragments, separates the coating layer from the underlying paper, and stacks and unifies them on a larger panel into one image. He keeps on doing so until the image has reached its destination.
His first significant solo show was at Jaski Art Gallery in Amsterdam in 2005. Three more exhibitions at Jaski followed: Zilver, The Heaven Show and Delicate. Along with Delicate, his second book was released. 99 of the books were accompanied by unique miniature paintings. After that, his fame spread quickly over the planet. Despite the fact that he is still young, he has exhibited world wide already (Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Singapore, the Noordbrabants Museum in 's-Hertogenbosch). In cooperation with Jaski, he made the book Mapping Infinity as well. Besides that, he designed the cover for the latest Blondie album ‘Panic of Girls’ (Deborah Harry is a collector of his work).
In October 2013 he had a solo exhibition in Tokyo called 'Nensha'. This traveling show is on display at Jaski from Sunday, February 16th until Sunday, March 2nd, and then moves to the Japan Museum Sibolthuis in Leiden (from 14 March). In addition, a TV documentary about his life and work was made for Avro's Close Up, which will be broadcasted on May 29th .
CV
Major Exhibition
2014 "NENSHA," Japan Museum SieboldHuis, Leiden, Netherlands
2013Affordable Art Fair Stockholm ArtZandra
2013 "NENSHA," Megumi Ogita Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2010 "Leeuwenhart," Roq La Rue, Seattle, WA
2009 "The Only Living Boy In New York," Sloan Fine Art, New York, NY
2009 "Chris Berens: Paintings," Noordbrabants Museum, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
2009 "White Ones," Jaski Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008 "Go West," Roq La Rue, Seattle, WA
2008 "Delicate," Jaski Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2007 "The Heaven Show," Jaski Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2006 "Zilver," Jaski Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Publications
"Mapping Infinity" (2011)
"Ninety-Nine" (2008)
"2239" (2008)
"Zilver" (2006)
