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Benjamin Phillips
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Benjamin Phillips' figures in bronze, primarily representing male bodies, define the nature of sexuality both as anguish and as an axis around which turns the human psyche. The impassive forms are forthright in their
exploration of sexuality, but they also concede to a sense of shame about the body, its ugliness and its vulnerability.
"Since 2003, I have been assembling a body of figurative sculptures that reflect the male perspective, loosely based around the literal and metaphorical concept of male virile energy and its influences on our culture. My
inspirations for art derive from pre-Christian heroic form, sex, death, and the discomforts that surround modern society's corporeal experience. By using a classical sculpture material, bronze, and drawing heavily from references to Greek
mythology, I strive to quietly subvert the traditions we have grown accustomed to with figurative bronze art by reversing its gender-specific stereotypes. For example, fortitude and self assertion are trademark symbols in art history for masculine
expression, while surrender and repose are often reserved for female expression. By exchanging these stereotypes, a new context is exposed for inquiry into both the stereotype and the form. These may be sensitive, even controversial topics to
be addressed, but to not inquire would seem to be denying a very basic aspect of human nature.
This project began
with my attraction to the physical characteristics and associations with bronze. The material intuitively fit with my ideas surrounding the questions I was asking myself about masculinity and its contemporary as well as historic role in society,
both on an individual and on a greater social scale. Bronze's natural permanency compliments my motives in recording insights into the subject as an enduring record and as a stimulus for dialogue into the re-evaluation of our representative
cultural record."
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Education |
1995 -1998 Honors BFA, Visual Arts, University of Victoria
1991 -1995 BA Comparative Religion, Acadia University
2003 - 2008 Art Institute Residency, Capilano College, North Vancouver
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Solo Exhibitions |
2007 Chthonian Dialogue Access Artist Run Centre’s Project Room, Vancouver, BC
2007 Discomfort Zones Capilano College Studio Arts Gallery, North Vancouver, BC
2005 Dry Run Capilano College Studio Arts Gallery, North Vancouver, BC
2001 (f)art Broadway Lee Building, Vancouver, BC
1999 Current Works, Rogue Art Gallery, Victoria, BC
1998 Duh Duh, Vertical Gallery, Open Space Gallery, Victoria, BC
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Group Exhibitions |
2006 Beyond Borders International Art Exhibition University of Western Washington,
Bellingham, WA
2005 Sex Art Vote Yes Sex Party [of BC] Political Campaign Event, Vancouver, BC
2003 Annual UBC Photo Society Exhibition, UBC AMS Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2002 Salon Show, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC
2001 International Digital Art Competition, Beecher Center for Technology in the Arts,
Youngstown, OH
2001 Eastside Culture Crawl, Vancouver, BC
2001 Propaganda II, Addicted Guerrilla Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2000 'Quick Draw Open Space Gallery, Victoria, BC
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Awards |
2007 The Shirley Eastcott Memorial Scholarship, Capilano College, North Vancouver
2005 The Capilano College Bursary Fund
2004 The Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation Grant
1998 The Helen Pitt Bursary for the Fine Arts
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