Henry Bateman

If you want engaging content to impress your readers making them glad they visited your page you've come to the right place. With over 30 years of telling stories to the world I look forward to telling your story.

Hi, I’m Henry, and I write captivating articles, blog posts, press releases and scripts for and about the performing and visual arts and show my photographs in bricks and mortar galleries. My work has been published and exhibited in Australia, Asia and America.

My writing has knowledgeable and well researched content presented in an imaginative and well-crafted style that will build your reader’s respect and trust. Invite your audience will dine at a restaurant rather than grabbing a burger from McDonald’s.

I take pride in my work, it is all written by me and proofed before delivery. My ability and experience with visual communication and Photoshop means I can select and prepare images to complement the written words and further engaging your reader’s attention.

My assignment will be finished when you are 100% satisfied. With our communication being the key to achieving that end in a timely manner.

The first step in reaching out to your audience is to get in touch and let me know what you need.

Abstracting the Colors of Brazil

“At the end of the day, technique is very important in the context of my work.” Beatriz Milhazes

The cutouts of Henri Matisse, the op-art of Bridget Riley and the colors of Brazil’s world famous Carnival are all influences that the Brazilian abstract artist Beatriz Milhazes crowds into her paintings in an explosion of color and form.

About which the Deutsche Bank Collection’s Achim Drucks wrote in his 2012 essay No Fear of Beauty “Milhazes's paintings hover between a stunning ornamental beauty and an overload of forms, colors, styles, and quotes. It is not the kind of beauty in which the eye can rest, however; instead, it absorbs the gaze and threatens to overpower the viewer.”

It is in stark contrast to the majority of her contemporaries in Brazilian art scene.

As she explained in the catalogue for her 2009 exhibition at Paris’ Fondation Cartier "We don't have a strong tradition of painting in Brazil, and especially not painting with color. When I became internationally known as a Brazilian painter, the international audience thought that I came out of a strong tradition of Brazilian painting. This is because there is a general lack of information on Latin American art. Due to Spanish colonization, some countries like Mexico or Venezuela have a strong painting tradition. This is not the case for Brazil. The most important and well-known Brazilian art is conceptual and constructivist. There is no special interest in color. Brazil is a colorful country, but its art isn't. That is why people get confused. I use elements from my culture, and color is one of them, but I'm the only one to do so."

Enthralled by Matisse’s collaged cutouts and equally impressed by the smoothness of Riley’s op-art renderings Milhazes has developed a unique approach to applying paint to her canvases. She first paints a motif for inclusion in a work on plastic which she then glues to the canvas. When the paint has dried Milhazes then peels off the plastic. A process she repeats until the work is complete.

And about which she has said "I like the resulting smooth texture, the way in which the painting seems 'frozen' in time. I love painting, but I do not want the texture of the brushstrokes or the 'hand' of the painter to be visible on my canvases."

Milhazes motifs are abstracted renderings inspired by Brazilian culture, ceramics, lacework, carnival decoration, music, and Colonial baroque architecture.

As she told Dirimart Gallery’s bi-annual publication RES Art World/World Art “I need to have all these elements and put them together. They are in some sort of a conflict that will never really end up anywhere. There are not peaceful surfaces. There should be some struggle on the surface and then create some activities for your eyes.”

Milhazes’ current exhibition Marola is on show at New York’s James Cohan gallery until the 28th of November.

In the tradition of children the world over who pull their toys apart to see what makes them tick, the exhibition “An Aussie in Manila” deconstructs the adopted lifestyle of Philippine-based Australian artist Henry Bateman. In a visual exploration of his 4 years in the Philippine capital and through his unique approach to photography he examines and comments upon his Manila experience.

From a Metro Manila Shopping Mall to the Holy Week celebrations, from observations of the local art scene to a self critical appraisal of his own work, the work in this exhibition is an intellectual journey colored by an antipodean aesthetic.

What is it that distinguishes Manila in the eyes of this Aussie expat?

It’s not only the jumble of the urban streetscape or the overtly polite shop assistants. For Bateman there is more to this Filipino/Chinese/Spanish/American conglomerate. In this profligate meeting of East and West, where for most, the dance is attuned to the melody of the cash register his sojourn has become an enthralling escape from the eucalyptus.

Henry Bateman has been making art for over three decades. His first paid gigs were designing lighting and/or sets for a variety of Australian theatrical productions that ranged from straight theatre, through dance to musicals. In between these jobs he developed his studio practice.

He first showed his studio work in a group exhibition devoted to drawing at Sydney’s Boronia Gallery in 1984. This was followed by a solo exhibition of paintings, later in the same year, at the University of Western Australia. His 1985 exhibition “Hung up on a Wall” attracted controversy over the nudity depicted in the exhibition’s poster, a reproduction of one of the works on display.

At the turn of the century Bateman abandoned painting in favor of photographic based works. It was the post production facilities of the computer that attracted his interest. Over the years he has developed a unique approach to manipulating his photographs that enables him to express his thoughts about his subjects rather than rendering their literal representation. In 2007 a selection of these works were exhibited in Canberra at the Australian National University.

Bateman also writes regularly about the international arts scene for the Los Angeles based contemporary art website www.artslant.com and about the local art scene for the Philippine based Expat Travel & Lifestyle Magazine.

The “An Aussie in Manila” exhibition is part of the Australian Embassy’s celebration of its National Day on the 26th of January, showcasing the best of Australian music and art. Known as Celebrate Australia 2010 it will also feature the exhibition White Hot: Contemporary Australia Glass, featuring the works of renowned Australian glass artists from January 27 to February 26 at the Ayala Museum.The Australia Day celebrations also include performances and master classes by didgeridoo virtuoso William Barton and the Orava String Quartet. The group is scheduled to perform on January 27 at Greenbelt 3 Park; January 28 at the Alabang Town Center; and January 29 at the TriNoma.

“An Aussie in Manila” will be Bateman’s fourth solo exhibition in the Philippines and his second at the Sining Kamalig Gallery which is situated on the 4th level of the Gateway Mall, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City. The exhibition runs from January 28, 2010 through to February 21, 2010. And at 3pm on February 13 the artist, Henry Bateman, will give an Artist’s Talk entitled “Photographic Art as a Commodity”.

Published in The Expat Newspaper, 20 January 2008

Documenting the human condition is the mainstay of the photojournalist’s craft, especially in the realms of the highly lauded photographic genre of black and white photography. And American photographer, Charles Harbutt, in his current exhibition at the Silverlens Gallery succeeds admirably in showing us his view of life on the streets. With his 1982 Yucatan photograph, “Monday Morning” being a captivating portrayal of the start of the working week.

But Harbutt’s work is more than just people and their predilections. He has a fine sense of the abstract qualities of space within the picture frame, which he uses to good effect. As in the relationship between the two buildings depicted in “Rue Schoelcher” that whilst being ages apart are connected by his spatial rendering of the sky. And the tree and wall in “Hacienda Chichen” where his use of light and dark spaces creates an abstract of haiku proportions.

When Harbutt combines these spatial design skills with his observation of people, then the magic of his photography comes to the fore. In works like “Heart of Dallas”, “Man on Escalator” and “Scrivener” there is an intriguing disconnect between the people and their environment. The people are almost ant like in Harbutt’s abstracted cityscapes and blissfully unaware of their insignificance whilst being an anonymous centre of attention. How many of us have been too involved with the details of our daily life to notice our fifteen minutes?

This sense of irony also informs the poster piece for the exhibition, “Chrysler Building” (see above) and the darkly comedic “Running Man”. The nonchalant indifference of the man in the glass and concrete box to one of New York’s best known landmarks in the former and the quite desperation of escape from the oppressive industrial cityscape of Liverpool in the latter.

In the black and white photographic genre Harbutt’s stylized abstractions complement his photojournalism enhancing the image’s story with a lyrical simplicity. And for their first exhibition for 2008, Silverlens have set themselves a high bench mark for the rest of the year. For those interested in art in general and photography in particular, Charles Harbutt’s exhibition is a must see.

The exhibition continues at the Silverlens Gallery, 2320 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City until the 9th of February. Blog post at Picture Correct 28 )ctober 2009