Artist: BEN WALKER

Born in Chester and now residing and working in Kent, Ben Walker’s education includes an MA in Fine Art (Drawing) Wimbledon School of Art, 2000 – 2001 and a BA (Hons) Fine Art Sheffield Hallam University, 1994 – 1997. “The central themes which inform my work currently are historical atrocities, specifically the Holocaust and Nazism. Imagery from the Holocaust and military youth movements are deployed as signifiers of evil, dread, no future, to display the emptiness of the subject. I don’t want to make literal, descriptive paintings but to use figurative elements and subdued tonal ranges to depict people who were viewed as anonymous or as objects, and to reflect a sense of vulnerability and create an impression of remoteness. The figures in the compositions are often vague or simplified, reduced to silhouettes, with unnecessary detail eliminated. The backgrounds of the paintings contain enough information to indicate some kind of space or setting. I work on coarse grained linen which is sized rather than primed, and use a fairly narrow range of colours – mainly browns, greys and greens. There is an emphasis on the actual process and evolution of making the work. Value is placed on the application of paint, the variation of the brush marks, and the surface.”

 ~ Ben Walker