Henderson Cisz

Banking and art wouldn’t make the easiest of bedfellows we should imagine, which probably explains why Henderson Cisz knew one of his passions had to give. So the Brazilian-born fine artist kissed goodbye to a promising career in high finance and instead looked to the world of contemporary art to secure his future. This cathartic moment in Cisz’s life took place in the mid-1980s and was without question a brave and bold decision to arrive at. To discard a safe, secure career and to take a punt on what to many might be perceived as a flight of fancy. The thing is, Cisz had long-harboured dreams of turning his hobby into his 9 – 5, and it was probably always a case of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’.

To enable Cisz to realise his long-held ambition, he knew he had to move to a country, and indeed, a city that could support him in his quest. After travelling far and wide to seek inspiration, Cisz opted to lay down his artistic roots in London. A city that the creative family have long gravitated toward; and moreover a world-renown centre of artistic excellence and opportunity. Cisz’s globe-trotting tour had previously touched down in such inspirational locations as New York, Paris and Venice, yet ultimately it was the lure of the UK’s capital city that proved too much to resist.

Whilst successfully capturing these romantic, visionary cities from every plausible angle, Cisz looked for that something more to convey through his art. Rain, sleet, snow, often offset by nightlights, cements many of his scenes, and Cisz often cites the visualization of such elements and their effect on the cityscape on which they project as crucial to his pieces. He talks at great length and with a degree of animation about the way shadows and reflections are cast when compromised by the more hostile of Mother Nature’s elements. And the shapes made by the denizens found beneath these darkened skies, as they brace themselves amid the gloom and doom as they go about their business.

New York, Paris, Venice and of course, London are the classically trained, bohemian-living urban cityscapes that instantaneously lend and steal themselves to be broadcast in such a light, and have all historically served as magnets to the most creative and questioning of souls since art became fashion, and fashion art. Cisz elects to tell his artistic tales via mediums as eclectic as the subject matters themselves, swaying between acrylic, oils and watercolours, while paper, canvas, board and boxed canvas provide the surface area.

Cisz’s protean approach to his materials and mediums comes as no surprise, on discovering his work environment is equally as scattergun. That’s according to those granted access all areas to his creative enclave. Canvasses stacked against walls, sketches, various works in progress, family photos et all, all jostle for attention against the paintbrush-splattered walls of his work space, located in sight of the River Thames in West London.

Cisz has a trophy cupboard positively brimming with silverware, having lifted the following awards over recent years; the UK galleries-honoured, Artist of the Year, the John Solomon Trophy, Best Up and Coming Artist, Artist of the Year and Best-Selling Artist and the Art Business Today-acknowledging, Best-Selling Images Poll winner in 2007. London’s galleries and international art fairs have borne witness to many of Cisz’s most acclaimed works, including; "Paris en Nuit" "Whitehall, London," "New York, New York," "Yellow Cab" "San Francisco Dawn" and "Street Scene, Paris".