David Hanes (b. 1987) is a “self-taught” painter of Canadian and American roots who redirected himself toward a more nature-rooted painting practice after several years of digital, conceptual, and minimal artmaking. Based in Berlin since 2014, he spends a significant amount of his time traversing the globe, which informs his painting practice.
Perhaps best described as nomadic, artworks start from plein-air sketches, which journey with him during his travels to later serve as the ideal “Momentaufnahme” (snapshots), eventually ending up in a new country with totally different circumstances before becoming oil paintings or watercolors. After his time on the road, Hanes settles into a studio or residency to contemplate the collected studies as “souvenirs” or “conduits” to his felt experiences and emotions before he begins painting. A sketched moment from Iceland may turn into a watercolor in Italy and, finally, an oil-painted canvas in Berlin. This puts time and distance between the moment of the sketch and the final canvas, adding a non-observed layer made only by memory and feeling.
Recalling the likes of Kandinsky, Vlaminck, Gauguin, Kirchner, and other early modern painters, he strives to capture only the moment’s feelings, energies, and emotions he is experiencing at that given time. Then, later in the studio, he recalls the feelings connected to his plein-air studies, aiming to create dynamic windows to the living experiences of his worldly travels. Focused around subjects of nature these paintings use color to explore the ideas and emotions he is having, with what become rawly expressive paintings.
In the most personal sense, the purpose of artmaking is to offer a kind of relief or response to suffering and that art can sustain deep currents of an ever-temporal, yet interconnected universe. Hanes often uses the language of metaphysical concepts to convey a deeply felt connection with the currents of life — driving his exploration into an Earth-driven painting practice, nurturing a holistic, human perspective in an ever-technologically robust and uncertain society.
David Hanes has exhibited nationally and internationally, including Mott Projects (Catskill), Il Bisonte Gallery (Florence), Annika Nuttall Gallery (Aarhus), Andrea Festa (Rome), Emerge Project Space (Pescara), White Noise Gallery (Rome), Spazio ORR (Brescia), Open Forum (Berlin), Birch Contemporary (Toronto), Pylon Lab (Dresden), Ultrastudio (Pescara), Robert Morat Galerie (Berlin), PlatformArt (David Zwirner).
His artistic contributions have been featured in publications such as Dazed, Juliet Art Magazine, O Fluxo, Friends of The Artist, Daily Lazy, CKTH, Whitehot Magazine, FAD Magazine, Inside Art Magazine, Exibart, Artoday, Art Viewer, Ignant, Scandale Project, Kubaparis, and Munchies Art Club.
Recently, Hanes has been engaged in several projects, including residencies at Pas Mal Residency in Montreal, LungA School in Iceland, Farmlands Residency in Luxembourg, the SUL Foundation in Canada, and the Villa Lena Foundation in Tuscany.