Ben Weiner
Gel Monochrome Variation 1, 2016
IMAGE SIZE: 14.5” x 11” / ARTIST STATEMENT: My work depicts materials used to create illusions in …
Connecting two opposing styles—abstraction and photorealism—Ben Weiner creates hyper-detailed, lush paintings and videos of extremely magnified consumer products, including hair gel, chemical food additives, and deodorant. In his work, he presents such meticulously rendered, close-up views of his subjects that they read as pure abstractions. A through-line in Weiner’s various bodies of work is contemporary culture’s obsession with bodily enhancement through chemical products—whether by using hair products or taking illegal drugs. To create his drawings, the artist soaks monochrome drawings or to-do lists on chromatographic paper in solutions of drugs, creating colorful psychedelic washes generated by chance based on the substance’s chemical composition.
IMAGE SIZE: 14.5” x 11” / ARTIST STATEMENT: My work depicts materials used to create illusions in art and everyday life, such as oil paint on a palette; hair gel and jewels, which glamorize one’s appearance; and beeswax, which is used in sculpture. I light these materials in ways that activate their visually hypnotic …
Connecting two opposing styles—abstraction and photorealism—Ben Weiner creates hyper-detailed, lush paintings and videos of extremely magnified consumer products, including hair gel, chemical food additives, and deodorant. In his work, he presents such meticulously rendered, close-up views of his subjects that they read as pure abstractions. A through-line in Weiner’s various bodies of work is contemporary culture’s obsession with bodily enhancement through chemical products—whether by using hair products or taking illegal drugs. To create his drawings, the artist soaks monochrome drawings or to-do lists on chromatographic paper in solutions of drugs, creating colorful psychedelic washes generated by chance based on the substance’s chemical composition.
