[2] He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California Los Angeles in 2003 where he studied with John Baldessari, Mary Kelly, and Paul McCarthy.
[9] David Pagel described Haendel's work in this exhibition as that of a “detached observer, an armchair sociologist more interested in pointing out the irrationality of society's crass values than in risking failure to shake things up.”[10] In a later review of the show, Jody Zellen described Haendel as a “smart artist.” “He has the skills as well as the know how to make intelligent, beautiful, and well-designed works of art...He appropriates the strategies of appropriation and installation, while also acknowledging conceptualism, minimalism, and the power of political art.”[11] Haendel was also included in the 2004[12] and 2008[13] California Biennials at the Orange County Museum of Art and Prospect II, New Orleans in 2011.
[15] The installation featured his “signature, stunning graphite drawings on paper--one series depicting cracked light bulbs, mirrors, and eggs; another, the fortunes from fortune cookies; another, abstractions that riff on Mondrian’s “Boogie-Woogie” series—all of which covered two 20-foot-long walls that cross the building's famed glass lobby.”[16] In 2011 Haendel exhibited his first film, “Questions for my father,” made in collaboration with filmmaker Petter Ringbom.
“Each man makes repeat appearances, looking directly into the camera and asking a short, pithy question that, it doesn’t take long to realize, are intended for the speaker’s absent male parent.
[20] The installation is made up of approximately 60 drawings which focus on themes of gun violence, sexual difference, technological fetishism, and power structures.
[30] In particular, David Frankel's 2011 Artforum review of “Questions for My Father,” highlights the artist's interest in the emotional ramifications of social and political structures, noting that “politics, sexuality, household habits, finances--nothing is off the table here…[while] the master’s voice is absent.”[31] Most recently, Art Journal has published several articles in 2016 investigating Haendel's different modes and models of appropriation in the legacy of the postmodernist strategy and its reception.