Variations in Landscape: A Fine Art Exhibition by Ben Benedict
July 17-27, 2024
Satellite Project Space
121 Dundas St, London, ON
Wednesday-Friday 2-7pm, Saturday 12-5pm
Opening Reception: July 18, 5-7PM
With over 30 years of professional creativity, this exhibit calls upon that history as a Bricoleur working in the London Regionalist Tradition. My art is constructed from a wide range of materials; my creativity is informed by Memory, Object Relations Theories, and Structural Linguistics/Semiotics; includes the use of deconstructed materials and narratives; and, with subjects ranging from abstraction, the environment/landscape, to gender/LGBTQ2+ issues – adopting increasingly an activist message.
In this, I am applying a critical lens to the language and iconography around a signifier – the Canadian Landscape. By deconstructing those signified concepts, I am challenging viewers notion of contemporary social constructions around our understanding of Landscape in all its iterations consistent with my artistry. Additionally, from this investigation a number of palette paintings – created from the left-over paint of these more major works, having become a critical component of my practice – will form a part of this exploration.
The exhibit is accompanied by a critical essay with the focus on provenance and originality. In this case, ‘landscape’ – its history, methodology, and critical understanding of its contemporary use, and how should an artist respond? In taking on this challenge of placing myself and my artwork amongst the history of art making in London, Ontario, Canada, and then exploring that history through my current practice. I chose to apply a critical lens to both my practice and the language and iconography around the Canadian Landscape. This exhibition is the summary of that investigation.
As such, this critical essay will draw that historical line from Homer Watson, through the Group of Seven, to the London Regionalists, to finally myself – the next in the lineage of London’s Regionalist movement as its champion and current purveyor – developing my own form of London’s Regionalism while moving this dialogue forward.
Image 1: Ben Benedict, Coming Storm, 2024, 51w x 51h x 3d Inches, Acrylic on Mixed Metals and Wood
Image 2: Ben Benedict, Door Kicked In, 2022, Acrylic on Collaged Paper, 22w x 29h Inches
Exhibition Works by Ben Benedict
SATELLiTE 