Hernan Bas: The Conceptualists at The Bass Museum of Art

Featuring 35 paintings, the exhibition (4 December 2023–5 May 2024) explores conceptual art as a permissive realm for creative behavior and an inviting space for queerness.

While earlier works show male characters linked to specific stories, each painting in The Conceptualists depicts a single protagonist deeply engaged in an obsessive, idiosyncratic pastime. Bas’ subjects freely exercise the unique activities that give sustenance and meaning to their lives: carving objects that hold ice, fabricating roadside memorials for hitchhikers, chewing gum every waking hour of the day, or gilding the leaves of dying house plants, among other personal idylls.

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Image: Hernan Bas, Conceptual Artist #12 (Both culinary and time-based, he refrains from enjoying his favourite recipes until the main ingredient recycles itself), 2022