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Ben Edmunds

Born in Norwich (UK), Ben Edmunds currently lives and works in London. In 2016 he studied in Wimbledon College of Art and later on in 2018 — in the Royal College of Art.

On the whole, Edmunds develops contemporary manifestations of mythology and systems of belief. His work is characterized by the combination of the ‘holy’ almost archaic formal modes of Modernist Abstract Expressionism and color field painting. And additionally by the combination of Minimalism with the contemporary accents of extreme sports and high-fashion.

Out of this synthesis of celebrated iconographies, Ben Edmunds treads a precariously fine line between cliché and a sincere acknowledgment of human desire.

Therefore the desire is undeniably a fundamental currency of the paintings. That is underwritten in the dyed canvases, the handmade carbon fiber components, the carabiners, and short incidents of text. And is an implicit understanding that we are unsatisfied.

Moreover that as an artist and as a viewer we approach the world around us impoverished. And in need of moralizing, rationalizing sustenance.

In an energetic environment of fashions and trends, of juice-cleanses and cross-fit, Edmunds’ paintings appeal to the ‘desiring-body’. As well as to the appetite of the consumer who needs experiences more than they need objects.

Given that Edmunds’ paintings should be at times skeletal, in a state of balance. In like manner held together by shock cords and clips, climbing equipment and sailing gear — the materials of activity and leisure. Therefore sentimentality in his paintings is now structurally bound to their material.

Just as magazines and advertising plug their products through their respective journals of desire, Edmund’s work is a bond of the praised status and materiality of painting. That further combines with the practicalities and nominal status of the hobbyist who searches for meaning through private, self-worshipping acts.

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