statement

A preoccupation with images is the driving force behind Ben Spiers' paintings. An inveterate collector of images, he is constantly cutting things from newspapers, old magazines and books. Often an image will suggest an idea for a painting - it may be a recognised, historically significant work of art, but is just as likely to be a still from a forgotten film of the 1970's... Spiers then develops, adapts and transforms this imagery through a process of drawing and preliminary studies. Guided by instinct, material experimentation and an idea of the content he wants to express, the work generally undergoes a number of radical shifts as it gets made. Ideally, the finished work arrives at its final state having walked such a crooked path that it has shed its resemblance to other images and become a thing in itself - with its own singular, distinctive identity. His body of work ranges between figuration and abstraction, but is unified by an abiding obsession with clearly articulated form, rendered to convey a sense of almost sculptural solidity.

bio

born: 1972, Plymouth UK

education

Goldsmiths University BA 1995

selected awards/honors

John Moores Painting Prize - Walker gallery, Liverpool 2006

selected publications

100 London Artists - 50 Painters: Edward Lucie Smith and Zavier Ellis
Seamless Reinvention: James Hymen - Art of England magazine
Beyond the Human Flesh: James Hymen

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Seamless Reinvention, James Hymen Fine Art, London 2011
El Rostro Desnudo: Museo De La Benemerita, Puebla, Mexico 2008
Homework: City and Guilds, London 2000

selected group shows

The Future Can Wait, Charlie Smith Gallery, London, 2015
Future Flesh, 223 Gallery, London 2014
Beyond the Human Clay, James Hymen Gallery 2011
John Moores, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 2006