Bill Henson

What we feel about love, ageing, beauty, longing, fear, death and so on teaches us individually and collectively about our place in the world... Indeed, for me art is the highest form of education because it is profoundly empathetic and at its best it always recommends the truth. As Plato said, ‘beauty is the splendor of truth.
—Bill Henson

A solo exhibition of new works by Bill Henson, a seminal and internationally acclaimed contemporary artist, opened recently at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney. In a career spanning more than forty years, Henson's extraordinary images arrest moments of vulnerability and reveal the world through the lens of classicism. Henson's sublime imagery captures the abstract dimension of objects and figures by universalising the subject. There is a powerful sense of mystery within the images that is heightened by the artist's impressionistic approach, romantic vision, and his signature use of chiaroscuro.

Henson represented Australia at the 46th Venice Biennale in 1995. Henson’s solo exhibitions include: Bill Henson, National Gallery of Victoria and Bill Henson, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth (2017), Cloud Landscapes, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2013), Bill Henson: Three Decades of Photography, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2005), Bill Henson, Centro de Fotografia, University of Salamanca, Spain (2003), Bill Henson, Scalo, Zurich, Switzerland (2001), Bill Henson, Tel Aviv Museum of Art (1993), Bill Henson Photography, Denver Art Museum (1989), Bill Henson Photographs, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, (1990) and Bill Henson Fotografien, Museum Moderner Kunst, Palais Liechtenstein, Vienna (1989).

Henson had his first solo exhibition, at the age of 19, at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1975. The NGV has now acquired over 100 Henson works, the most significant of any public institution. Henson’s work is held in every major public collection in Australia and many overseas collections including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, Denver Art Museum, Houston Museum of Fine Art, 21C Museum, Louisville, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, Sammlung Volpinum, Vienna, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Tate, London.