Henrijs Preiss
Las Vegas, NM
Visual aid for a traveling mind 1
cardboard, color paper
48x48x14
2023
$8900
About
Henri Preiss (1973) holds a Bachelor’s degree in stage design studies at the Latvian Academy of Arts and a Master’s in the same speciality from the Central Saint Martins School in London (2001). After completing his studies, Preiss stayed in London, and the city became one of the influences in his work. He has had an active run in exhibitions, having had five solo shows, participated in the Prague Quadriennal (1995) and in a number of group exhibitions in Berlin, Brussels, London and New York. Notable galleries, such as Saatchi and the University of the Arts in London, as well as Zuzeum have acquired Preiss’ works. He is mentioned as one of the ‘’100 Painters of Tomorrow’’ in the list of Kurt Beers, issued by Thames & Hudson. Henri Preiss currently lives and works in the United States.
Artist Statement
Since early childhood I’ve been surrounded by my Dad’s art books and magazines, especially on Russian constructivism and Bauhaus. Later in life, the desert areas of the Western U.S. had given me a new outlook at how to combine landscapes and visual communication symbols of many cultures to a universal language of geometric shapes and color. My work is influenced by a wide variety of cultural sources, from medieval religious painting to urban architecture and computer game graphics. I see my paintings as giant three dimensional structures existing timelessly somewhere in the universe but close enough to be accessed subconsciously. This forms the composition of my work and how the individual elements of each piece sit (un)comfortably beside one another. By examining a broad framework of art history to identifying common elements (compositions, colors schemes and symbolism) that arise over centuries and throughout different cultures, I simplify these visual components, and then recombine them into complex, multi-layered pieces.
