Benjamin Senior (b. 1982, UK) is based in London. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2010. He has had solo exhibitions at James Fuentes LLC, NewYork (2013), BolteLang, Zurich (2012) and Jerwood Project Space, London (2006).
Benjamin Senior
A new body of work by Benjamin Senior, his first solo exhibition in a London public gallery,
Senior’s figurative paintings typically depict women engaged in sport or exercise. Recent works play with formal rhythms, false symmetries and colour relationships. This sense of play continues within the frame of the picture as athletic figures and the patterned interiors or landscapes they occupy fuse with the flat surface of the painting.
There is a voyeuristic aspect to Senior’s work as viewers become self-consciously aware of the action of their own gaze, as Dan Coombs recently noted:
“The impeccable clarity and compositional order of Senior’s work invites us into what at first seems an uncomplicated and highly pleasurable relationship with his paintings. We are able to gaze upon lovingly rendered female bodies that are unaware of our presence and engaged in absorbing activities, but as we look further we encounter schisms within the compositions which disrupt the easy flow of our vision. In disrupting our vision, the subtle schisms suddenly make us aware of our own act of looking – we become self-conscious – and suddenly we find that the painting seems to be gazing back at us.” – Dan Coombs, 2013.
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Benjamin Senior, 2013. Installation View, Studio Voltaire, London. A Studio Voltaire commission. Courtesy of the artist and BolteLang, Zurich. Photo: Andy Keate.