Hernan Bas: The Dance of the Machine Gun & other forms of unpopular expression23 April – 10 July 2009Opening reception: Thursday, 23 April 2009 from 6-8 PM201 Chrystie Street, New York City

Lehmann Maupin Gallery is pleased to announce its first exhibition with Hernan Bas, TheDance of the Machine Gun & other forms of unpopular expression, opening onThursday, 23 April at the gallery's 201 Chrystie Street location.  

Bas continues to indulge his fascination with the history of painting, fantastical tales of thesupernatural and Neo-Gothic romanticism to form a new series of paintings. He has movedaway from the decadent dandies of earlier series towards fertile landscapes populated withexotic creatures and waifish adventurers. His dark and melancholy palettes have given way tolush vivid colors, yet continue to extol the escapist fantasies and rich narratives seen in his earlycareer.

The show's title, "The Dance of the Machine Gun & other forms of unpopular expression"references the "Futurist Manifesto" by F.T. Marinetti the Italian poet, editor and founder of theFuturist movement. The possibility for new ideas and ways of thinking that evolve from theabsurd encapsulate Bas' thinking behind the entire body of work, and he takes as his point ofdeparture the absinthe induced writings and absurdist theatre concocted by Alfred Jarry. Hispaintings of immense scale conjure a complex visual dialogue referencing Dada, Futurism,Surrealism, and early Russian theater. In "Ubu Roi", Jarry's irrational main character Ubu, leadsa group of dancing followers through a scene reminiscent of Russian Futurist stage design, flatcubist abstraction and the illustrated tales of Hans Christian Andersen. It is a world rich with thehistory of his predecessors, yet a vision of possibilities that is inherently Bas’s own.

Hernan Bas: Works from the Rubell Family Collection, curated by Mark Coetzee, is also on viewat the Brooklyn Museum through 24 May 2009. In 2005, he presented Soap Operatic, a soloexhibition at The Moore Space, Miami. Other notable exhibitions include the 2004 WhitneyBiennial, New York; Ideal Worlds: New Romanticism in Contemporary Art, Schirn Kunsthalle,Frankfurt; Triumph of Painting: Part Three, Saatchi Gallery, London; Like Color in Pictures, AspenArt Museum; and Humid, The Moore Space, Miami. His work is included in the permanentcollections of MoMA, New York; SF MoMA, San Francisco; MoCA, Los Angeles; the BrooklynMuseum, NY; MoCA, Miami; Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C; andthe Miami Art Museum. Bas lives and works in Miami, Florida and studied at the New WorldSchool of the Arts.

For further information please contact Stephanie Smith at 212 255 2923 orStephanie@LehmannMaupin.com or you may visit our website at www.LehmannMaupin.com