Ben Grant will be presenting his optically charged abstract works at River Edge Gallery in Mequon starting April 20. The exhibition, entitled Standard Deviation, is a collection of recent medium and large scale Flashe on canvas paintings. Join the opening reception for this show Friday April 20th 5-8 PM to meet Ben and have the first opportunity to experience his paintings.
“In my most recent body of work I have taken a process-based means of production as a conceptual starting point for the creation of my paintings. Through the use of a variety of photographic, cultural and art historical references, I have attempted to marry images with divergent origins, but often thematically similar subject matter, by outputting them in a range of different painting techniques. As I process these images, they lose much of their original visual identity and are translated into a mark making system that, while functioning on a largely formal level, retains an echo of its image origin. The slight hint of recognition that comes with what might otherwise appear to be an element of abstraction is a tool that I use to make my paintings straddle the line between representation and abstraction. By giving the viewer great latitude in their associational and interpretational reactions, I hope to nudge them rather than force them into a relationship with each work.”- Ben Grant