Ben Reeves
Equinox Gallery 3642 Commercial Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V5N 4G2
Ben Reeves, "Magritte Sea," 2023
oil and acrylic on canvas, 52" x 68". Courtesy of the Gallery.
An exhibition of new paintings by Ben Reeves.
Ben Reeves is known for his sumptuous use of paint in compositions that deftly explore the relationship between abstraction and depiction. His work is actively engaged with the theory of painting, raising questions about the authenticity of imagery, while remaining deceptively traditional. At first glance, many of his works appear to borrow generously from 19th-century realism, yet they are often meticulously conceptual. Reeves’ work continually asserts that the painted image is a vocabulary of brushstrokes, a culturally understood visual language. Dominated by thick daubs of oil paint, Reeves’ paintings command a physical presence with their relief-like impasto surfaces.