Tag Archives: Ben Weiner

MMG artist Ben Weiner’s upcoming solo exhibition, SMUSH, opens November 1 at Benrimon Contemporary in New York

Ben Weiner’s first solo exhibition at the Benrimon Contemporary, on view until December 15, includes paintings, a multi-channel video installation, and sculptural objects.

Ben Weiner - Shrine

Ben Weiner
Shrine, 2012
Oil on canvas, 52 x 78 inches

Engaging in a variety of media, ranging from Weiner’s signature large-scale paintings and time-lapse videos to a series of sculptural objects, SMUSH explores a process-based narrative, adapting medium specificity for the reality television era. The exhibition explores the structure of paint at a microscopic level, unveiling the organic origins of a man-made material.

Weiner bases his paintings on highly magnified views of the paint on his palette. Viewed at a perspective alien to the naked eye, blobs of paint appear as organic terrains and hyperpigmented, trompe l’oeil landscapes. These paintings chart the evolving topography of his palette, with the process creation of one painting generating source imagery for the next.

In addition to the paintings, the exhibit will present new videos and sculptural objects. Weiner’s time-lapse video projections magnify the process by which pigment, linseed oil, varnish, and turpentine are mixed together to make paint, distilling days of footage into several minutes. The resulting videos bring the viewer into a fantastical molten universe, where landscape and material is ever in flux.

For the first time in his career, Weiner will exhibit sculptural objects, crystalline forms grown from the minerals in paint pigment. By dissolving these minerals into solutions and letting them evaporate in molds, Weiner channels the natural processes by which crystals form. The objects meld glamour with the organic, while reassessing the cycle of nature and artificiality.

Ben Weiner was born in 1980 and lives and works in New York City. His work has been included in exhibitions at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, The Carnegie Art Museum, The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University, and The Riverside Art Museum. Weiner has had two solo exhibitions with Mark Moore Gallery in Los Angeles, and his works are in the permanent collections of the Sammlung Mondstudio (Germany), Progressive Insurance (Ohio), and the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation (California). In 2010 Weiner was awarded the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.

Opening reception:
Thursday, November 1
6-8pm
Benrimon Contemporary
514 West 24th Street
New York, New York

Ben Weiner’s Abstractions Travel to St. Louis

As of Friday, May 20th, Ben Weiner‘s video work entitled Na + (aq) + C5H8NO – (aq) NaC5H8NO4(s) can be found in Bruno David Gallery‘s New Media Room. Representing his most recent form of photographic exploration, the piece utilizes stop motion technique to combine thousands of photographs into a swirling, coalescing landscape of lavish texture that is mysteriously familiar, transcendent, and disorienting all at the same time. Depicting magnifications of synthetic materials, the resulting terrain fuses object, subject, and medium in an exploration of beauty, surface, abstraction, and consumer/art object duality.

The exhibition will run though July 2 in all of its opulent glory. Visit the exhibition’s website for more information.

Ben Weiner’s “Un-Titled (Abstraction)”

With the doors of his second LA solo show just barely closed, Ben Weiner‘s work will be swept away to New Mexico in order to be featured in “Un-Titled (Abstraction)” at David Richard Contemporary (Santa Fe).

Showing alongside Jay Davis, Shirley Kaneda, Clarence Morgan, and Matthew Penkala, Weiner will have both painting and video featured in the exhibition – which opens July 20th, and remains on view through August 28th, 2010.

The opening reception for the exhibition is set for July 24, from 5-8pm. More information can be found on the David Richard Contemporary website!

Ben Weiner Selected for NYFA Painting Fellowship

With impeccable timing, the New York Foundation for the Arts recently announced their 2010 Painting Fellowship Award Recipients – and among them was MMG’s currently exhibiting artist, Ben Weiner. Of the 6,200 applicants, Weiner was chosen alongside 117 other talented painters; excellent news in tandem with recent acquisitions of his work by the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation (CA) and Sammlung Mondstudio (Germany).

Be sure to catch Weiner’s current solo exhibition, “Material and Illusion,” before it closes July 3rd!

MMG: Statements 3 Features Ben Weiner

Now available on pre-order, Mark Moore Gallery: Statements 3 features Ben Weiner, complete with images from his upcoming solo exhibition, Material and Illusion, as well as works in public collections, a full-length interview and press excerpts.

The book can be purchased for $20 (plus shipping expenses) by emailing: publications@markmooregallery.com

Come on in, 2010!

While we are embarrassingly late in updating our blog, Mark Moore Gallery can say that we’re looking forward to a very strong 2010. Between the positivity felt at the Miami fairs, new artists being welcomed into the gallery and long-awaited shows being added to the schedule, we bid a hearty farewell to 2009.

Check out the goods for yourself with our mini-teaser below:

Miami in Review

MMG had this fantasy of doing blog updates every night we were in Miami – but after spending ten hours in the booth, followed by two hours in meetings, followed by brief appearances at artist and colleague happenings around the city…a few hours of sleep sounded like a more pressing need.

Now that we are back, and (for the most part) caught up with our post-fair ops, we are thrilled to share some of the fair’s highlights with you:

• We were excited to place works by Tim Bavington, Julie Heffernan, Nobuhito Nishigawara, Yigal Ozeri, Jason Salavon, Allison Schulnik, Cordy Ryman, Ben Weiner and Kenichi Yokono with enthusiastic and quality collectors.

Kiel Johnson, Kim Dorland, Ben Weiner Jason Salavon and Yigal Ozeri all made the journey to Miami to visit us, for which we were very thankful and appreciative. We were able to catch up with them at our event at the Essex House, which we co-hosted with Catharine Clark Gallery, DCKT Contemporary, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, Electric Works, Hosfelt Gallery, Marx & Zavattero, Mixed Greens, Morgan Lehman Gallery, P.P.O.W., Paul Kopeikin Gallery and Rena Bransten Gallery.

• Sarah Douglas of Art + Auction and ArtInfo.com spoke with Catlin Moore (Gallery Manager) about works in the booth, and consequently announced the Metropolitan Museum’s acquisition of Jason Salavon‘s “Portrait (Hals)” for their permanent collection in her PULSE Miami review.

Ben Weiner‘s “C6H1206” went to the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation’s permanent collection, while Julie Heffernan‘s “Study for Self Portrait as Flat World” went to the Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation.

• Museum des Beaux Arts Montreal acquired one of Allison Schulnik‘s videos, and 2×2 Gallery in Amsterdam confirmed a solo exhibition of new works by Kenichi Yokono.

• According to the Wall Street Journal‘s ongoing coverage, Miami had approximately 40,000 people in town for the fairs…dangerously close to 2007’s 43,000, and – we feel – largely indicative of a returning market. MMG personally met some fabulous collectors and writers over the week.

• Parties were prevalent – including free concerts by Santigold and the Sex Pistols – but MMG was too booked up to attend any functions besides their own. Because of this, they lived vicariously through the coverage on ArtForum, Flavorpill and ArtLog, and are only marginally bitter.

We sincerely thank all of our fervent collectors and MMG advocates for making the trip out this year, your support of our gallery and our artists is always deeply appreciated. Furthermore, our featured artists floored us with amazing work created for the booth, and their support of our ever-developing program. We thank them for providing us with such incredible art on an ongoing basis.

Check out the iPhone photojournalism efforts of MMG’S Gallery Manager, Catlin Moore, who apologizes for the horrendous quality of the images, but hopes they illuminate a small fraction of Miami’s greatness.

Next up: PULSE New York, 2010. Check back for the gallery’s announcement of this year’s solo booth artist.

Dear Miami: MMG Loves You

We came, we saw, we conquered….our booth, at least.

Day one of PULSE Contemporary Art Fair: Miami leaves us void of complaints and thrilled with the works we brought along. PULSE’s new location at the Ice Palace is absolutely perfect and pristine; not to mention the fabulous turnout of established and emerging galleries alike.

Check out some of the photos from our day (excuse the quality, had to snap ’em quick with the iPhone amongst installation) – and if you’re in the area, please visit us in Booth B-202, December 3 – 6th!

Ben Weiner + Museo Magazine

Here’s a first: MMG’s Ben Weiner is partaking in Museo Magazine’s online exhibition of artist screenshots.

Organized by Timothy Hull and Museo Editor, Dave Shapiro, the exhibition presents a glimpse into the working worlds of practicing comtemporary artists; better close that IM chat window!

Check out “Open Apple Shift 3: An Exhibition of Screenshots…” by visiting Museo Magazine’s website.

Museo Magazine

Ali Smith @ Freight + Volume

Ali Smith injected some (much needed?) California color into New York, with both her artwork and her outfit, last Thursday night at the opening of her first NYC solo show at Freight + Volume. See photos of the packed gallery space below. Congratulations Ali!