Benjamin Brandes: Wrestle and Weep
to
Outsiders and Others Art Society 716 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6A 1R5

Benjamin Brandes, "Staring Through a Wall"
72" x 48, Courtesy of the Gallery.
Opening Reception: June 3 from 2-4pm
Benjamin Brandes is a self-taught visual artist/musician/singer-songwriter. Ben was born and raised in Windsor, Ontario, and is now based in Vancouver, BC.
"Lucky to have been a teenager in a band in Windsor during the 90s, my youth was filled with music, mania, anxiety, depression, weird drawings, extreme experimentation and sculpture-making. Those early days, mixed with 8 strangely unforgettable, magical years in the thick of the Montreal music scene (2006 - 2014) continue to feed my creative monster to this day.
Working with paint revealed itself to me five years ago, in the form of an abandoned canvas, stretched and ready, just leaning against a dumpster. I added my 2 cents (and then some) to the surface and it's been a thing ever since. Rescued canvas and found surfaces (paper, tabletops, orphaned custom canvases, etc.) have become a safe haven for my darkness and anxiety; a safe place where the crippling waves can mix with my weird, wonderful and complicated past."