Selection
Escape Room
Uwe Henneken2025.12.05 ~ 2026.03.04
Description of the work
- Media Oil and acrylic on canvas
- Location 2F, La Seine, LOTTE HOTEL WORLD
In Escape Room, Uwe Henneken brings together a group of travellers seated before a solid brick wall, engaged in quiet discussion as they contemplate their next step. Their garments, spanning centuries from medieval tunics to contemporary outerwear, underscore their displacement in time, while the ground beneath them unfolds into intricate, maze-like patterns that evoke the confusion and circular thinking of being mentally or spiritually “stuck.” Yet the apparent impasse is subtly undermined by the wall itself: a door left slightly ajar, a small window set into the bricks, and the upper courses of the wall dissolving into the air. These gentle ruptures suggest that the barrier is less a physical obstruction than a construct of perception.
As in many of Henneken’s works, the travellers’ predicament hovers between entrapment and possibility, inviting viewers to recognise that pathways forward often exist precisely where certainty seems to end.
Artwork Inquiry 070–7739–8808
As in many of Henneken’s works, the travellers’ predicament hovers between entrapment and possibility, inviting viewers to recognise that pathways forward often exist precisely where certainty seems to end.
Artwork Inquiry 070–7739–8808
About the author
Uwe Henneken renders mystical landscapes as kaleidoscopic rest stops for odd wanderers just outside kingdoms forgotten or yet to be found. Known for his lush, seductive palettes and fairy tale imagery rendered in a style that is simultaneously cartoonish and Expressionist, the artist paints flower-strewn oak forests and mountainous landscapes that serve as his Romantic backdrops that veer towards psychedelic fantasy. Henneken is driven by his passion for spiritual expression and believes that we are all on a spiritual path.
Emulating the archetype of the artist as the shaman, a being that serves through crossing thresholds to other realities and coming back with a vision to share with the people, Uwe Henneken creates ethereal compositions that serve as a reminder of humanity’s need for spiritual respite.
Emulating the archetype of the artist as the shaman, a being that serves through crossing thresholds to other realities and coming back with a vision to share with the people, Uwe Henneken creates ethereal compositions that serve as a reminder of humanity’s need for spiritual respite.
Uwe Henneken (b.1974, Germany)
Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe and Berlin University of the Arts (Udk Berlin), class of Dorner and Hacker, Berlin, Germany
Professor at HfBK Hamburg (University of Fine Arts Hamburg)
Professor at HfBK Hamburg (University of Fine Arts Hamburg)
