Painter Benjamin Spiers (b. 1972, Plymouth, UK) lives and works in London.
Spiers studied Fine Arts at Goldsmiths University of London with painter Peter Doig, who taught him that painting could be 'complex and mysterious'. With a mastery of traditional painting techniques, rich textures, oversaturated discoloration, light effects and anatomical distortions, Spiers has devised a distinctive aesthetic which takes the human body as its primary subject.
He freely references art historical works - spanning from Baroque, to Cubism, Futurism and Abstraction - without fully committing to any of their formalities. His oil paintings, hovering between painstakingly realist details and surreal settings, bridge the gap between classical and contemporary art.
Ben Spiers recent solo exhibitions include: “Midnight Sombrero” at Carl Kostyál, Arsenalsgatan 3, Stockholm (2020); “Hook and Crook” at Carl Kostyál, London (2019); “Spellbound” at Avenue des Arts, Los Angeles (2019) among other.
Ben Spiers was included in major group exhibitions, including “Friends and Friends of Friends”, curated by Oli Epp at Schlossmuseum, Linz, Austria (2020); “Second Smile” at The Hole, New York (2020); “Vignettes” at Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles (2019); “Malmö Sessions”, Carl Kostyál, Malmö, Sweden (2019).