* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Ahren Hertel is a Reno based painter whose work deals with an imaginary and complex relationship between humans and animals.
Hertel is currently an instructor of painting and drawing at the University of Nevada, Reno. He received his MFA in Painting from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2009 and graduated in 2002 with a BFA in Illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Ahren has shown his work in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Savannah and Rome, Italy among other places. In 2009 he was awarded the Sierra Arts Foundation Professional Visual Artist Grant and in 2011 received the Nevada Arts Council Fellowship Grant.
Ahren explains the work by saying, “The boundaries between civilization and the natural world have long been disputed. I am interested in exploring this grey area and the awkward situations that arise because of it.”.
