Bill Henson

Bill Henson is a leading Australian contemporary artist, whose photography is marked by a technical mastery of light and shadow in the tradition of the old European masters. Henson documents the liminal spaces between youth and adulthood, day and night, masculine and feminine, urban and natural settings, often portraying his subjects in the abandoned, industrial spaces on the outskirts of cities. His painterly, cinematic works are reminiscent of the Romantic tradition in visual art and literature, in both aesthetic effect and thematic concerns.

Born in Melbourne in 1955, Henson had his first solo exhibition at the age of 19, at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. In 1995 he was Australia’s representative at the 46th Venice Biennale and in 2005 a comprehensive survey of his career was held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, and the National Gallery of Victoria. Henson’s solo exhibitions include The light fades but the Gods remain the same, Monash Gallery of Art, Wheelers Hill, Victoria (2019); Bill Henson, National Gallery of Victoria, Melburne and 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 and National Gallery of Victoria (2005); Bill Henson, Centro de Fotografia, University of Salamanca, Spain (2003); Bill Henson, Scalo, Zurich, Switzerland (2001); Bill Henson, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel (1993); Bill Henson photography, Denver Art Museum, Colorado (1989); Bill Henson photographs, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (1990); and Bill Hensonfotografien, Museum Moderner Kunst, Palais Liechtenstein, Vienna (1989).