In his watercolors and collages of paint fragments, Erik Benson depicts dilapidated and vacant urban landscapes, from half-lit offices to peeling billboards and empty playgrounds. His collages, composed of dried acrylic paint, suggest the inevitability of decay, while his paintings juxtapose repetitive, geometric forms with creeping overgrowth and wide expanses of dim sky. “I was interested in creating a painting vocabulary that depicted the plasticity and temporality of…the urban landscape, such as how cities grow and shrink, and what these issues mean to the inhabitants,” says Benson.