Reception: August 4, 5:30 - 7:30pm
Gallery Paule Anglim is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent sculptural work by Benji Whalen.
Benji Whalen looks to humanity for his subject matter and inspiration. He focuses on the human condition with irony and pathos, fixing his lens on the emotions, desires, appetites and struggles which drive our lives. His latest colorful sculptures are mounds of figures, small motley piles of interacting human bodies, each one depicting a character defined by its feelings or 'walk of life.'
Whalen's sculptures strike notes of horror and hilarity with intertwined figures that appear trapped in their vanities and roles. In previous bodies of work Whalen has pursued these images with other materials in a variety of formats: oil paintings, paintings on found pin-up photos, embroidery samplers and stuffed human figures and arms illuminated with tattoos.
Benji Whalen lives and works in San Francisco, where he received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. He is the recipient of an Artadia Award: the Fund for Art and Dialogue.
This will be Whalen's 5th exhibition at the gallery; his work has also been exhibited in New York and Europe regularly, and is represented in the collections of MoMA, New York and the Honolulu Academy of Arts in Hawaii.