Painter and sculptor, Oliver Henggeler is a Swiss contemporary artists. Born in 1966, he grew up in different areas of the German and Italian part of Switzerland, as son of a Swiss banker and a German artist. As a rather introverted child he found his passion for creation, spending all his spare time with painting and song writing. But his artistic career should start only much later on as a painter, after having worked in tourism and travelled around the globe for several years.

After the tragic death of his father, he quit his job and moved to the south of France in 1996, creating with his mother his own gallery, “La Planete” in a vineyard in Ramatuelle. In his early exhibitions the main theme are male nudes, provoking, sensitive, sometimes abstract. Beside different group exhibitions in the region, he exhibited at private solo exhibitions in France, Switzerland and Germany. During this period he met the Anglo-American artist, Paul Mason, in whom he found a friend with similar views and expectations. This reciprocal encouragement made Henggeler see art with a different sense, reflecting on the artistic expression in his work.

In 2005 he opened up his own gallery in a small artistic village near the coast, La Garde- Freinet, changing radically his style. While in the early years his approach was to show the external beauty of the human body, he has today the urge to work with the mind of humanity. His minimalist paint might recall artists like Keith Harring or Basquiat. Henggelers main inspiration though goes back to the cavern ages, where lifescenes were drawn with simple stickmen. He aims to show how we act and react in different situations, giving us criticism, love, rage, hope, without judgment.

“…Sometimes, the more art is simple, the better it can make people understand what it is really all about …”