Featured Image: Bill Henson, 1985-2021, Installation view, 2021. Courtesy: Starkwhite, Auckland.

Starkwhite presents 1985-2021 by Bill Henson.

Drawing on his early training as a painter, Henson employs the history of art, particularly portraiture and landscape painting, to create large scale works that blend formal techniques with cinematography and dreamscape to skilfully evoke mood and drama.The painterly and cinematic references characteristic of his work are drawn on to visually represent the physical feelings stirred by music. Henson’s use of intense colour hues suggests the heightened emotive state music can produce and, juxtaposed with evocative moody night skies, alludes to spiritual transcendence.