Benjamin Evans is an artist, teacher, and writer currently living in Brooklyn, New York. Originally from Newfoundland, Evans’ work explores the role of images in the lives of ordinary people. His most recent body of work involves images appropriated from scrambled television signals.
For me, watching television is a complex but mostly negative experience. TV teaches us how to live in a world we can never inhabit, and our attempts to access that world generally cause all sorts of familiar problems. Television is often ugly. So these paintings are partly about rehabilitating the ugly, adapting what I see as the brutality of pornography and Hollywood into something less brutal, and making the simplicity of televisual pabulum into something visually complex. In fact, this work is largely a matter of embracing dualities: They are figurative yet abstract, mechanical yet hand-made, expressive yet procedural, pornographic yet sensual, colorful yet made with a drastically reduced palette, voyeuristic yet strangely shy, pop-cultural yet fine art. Navigating such binaries, as well as taking some notice of the images which constantly flicker past our peripheral vision, is for me an important part of revisualizing vision.
Education:
Current - Professional Certificate of Global Affairs, NYU
2004 - MFA (Mixed Media), University of Calgary
2002 - M.Phil (Humanities) Memorial University of Newfoundland
1999 - MA (Philosophy) Queens University
1998 - BA Hon (Philosophy, Creative Writing) University of Calgary
Selected Solo and Two Person Exhibitions:
2007 - Sarah Bowen Gallery, New York, NY
2007 - Brooklyn Arts Council, New York, NY
2005 - Television, Untitled Art Society Gallery, Calgary
2005 - Thrift Store Paintings, Image 54 Gallery, Calgary
2005 - New Paintings, Untitled Arts Society, With Mercedes Perez San-Martin, Calgary
2004 - The MADE show (with Ryan Statz), Combine Design Studio, Calgary
2003 - Reality Television, Little Gallery, University of Calgary
2001 - Retrograde Motion, Old/New Paintings at Eastern Edge Gallery, St. John’s, NF, With Peter Drysdale
2001 - The Pegasus Project, Multimedia presentation, with paintings, cards, and interactive display. RCA Visual Gallery, St. John’s, NF
1997 - Exhibition: "A Partial History of the S-Relation", Little Gallery, University of Calgary
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2006 - The Momenta Benefit Show, Momenta Art, Brooklyn, New York
2006 - The Square Foot Show, Art Gotham, New York
2005 - ACAD Faculty Exhibition, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art and Design
2004 - ACAD Faculty Exhibition, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art and Design
2003 - Curatorial Project, with Stacey Watson: SURE, Little Gallery, University of Calgary
2001 - Transactions; a Collection of Artists’ Books. Eastern Edge Gallery, St. John’s, NF. Curated by Tara Bryan
2001 - The Creation Myth, Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John’s, NF. Curated by Gabrielle Kemp
2000 - Poster Boys and Girls, RCA Visual Gallery, St. John’s, NF
1999 - Collaborative Exhibition: "AM I AN ENCYCLOPEDIA", Union Gallery Annex, Queen's. With Margeaux Williamson and Ryan Jones
Grants and Awards:
Alberta Foundation for the Arts Project Grant, April, 2006
Alberta Heritage Grant, January, 2004
Province of Alberta Graduate Scholarship, February, 2003
University of Calgary Graduate Scholarship, January 2003
University of Calgary Graduate Fellowship, September, 2002
Named “Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies”, Memorial University, October, 2002
Coastal Inquiries Exchange Fellowship (for research in Denmark), May 2002
Newtel Cultural Innovations Fund grant, May 2001
Newtel Cultural Innovations Fund grant, October 2000
Canada Council Spoken and Electronic Word grant, June 2000
Newtel Cultural Innovations Fund grant, May 2000
Queen’s Graduate Fellowship, 1998-99
Finalist for 1997-1998 Rhodes Scholarship
Louise McKinney Scholarship 1997-1998
Publications:
Review: Arts Atlantic, spring 2002, no.71. Re: Retrograde Motion
Review: The Pegasus Project, in "The Express" Newspaper. 2001
Review: The Pegasus Project, in "The Newfoundland Herald". 2001
Publication: “Radical Explorations in Comparative Ontology”, fILLING STATION issue #18, August 2000
Review: A Partial History of the S-Relation, The Telegram (St. John’s), Feb. 11 2000
Publication: Chapbook: "A Partial History of the S-Relation", serviceberry press, 1997
Publication: "Selections from The Leonardo Book", fILLING STATION, Issue 14, November 1998
Review: "A Partial History of the S-Relation," Filling Station, Issue 13, June 1998
Collections:
Private collections in Canada, USA
