Person Ryan Gallery Presents Work by Internationally Recognized Local Artist, Benjamin Anderson

Person Ryan Gallery presents Summer Fix, a solo exhibit by local artist Benjamin Anderson set to run from July 27th to September 4th 2019.   A portion of sales will be donated to local non-profit Ocean Futures Society, who is dedicated to the exploration and preservation of the world’s fragile ocean eco-system and whose President and Founder, Jean-Michel Cousteau, recently helped negotiate an agreement to return 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales back to where they were illegally captured in the Sea of Okhotsk off Russia.

Best known for his hypnotic portraiture, recognized by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and featured most recently in RON ROBINSON Los Angeles, Benjamin Anderson brings a dynamic approach to his work that is both broadly applicable and deeply personal. This most recent exhibition, Summer Fix, brings a fresh perspective to iconic American imagery, featuring large-scale, realistic renditions of racecars, pick-up trucks and cars submerged in water. Suspended and utterly powerless in a state of tranquil dysfunction, each object is at the mercy of gravity, undulating peacefully in a dazzling web of refracted sunlight.

Eternally captivated by the task of expressing the movement and rhythm of water in painting, Anderson’s Swim features a series of female swimmers languishing like mermaids beneath the currents. Some images depict the subject as an undisturbed whole, intact and graceful, while others appear distorted to abstraction in more frenzied waters. The latest addition to this expressionist-style series, Cannonballers, portrays swimmers as nothing but energetic, quasi-abstract shapes, a mysterious blur of color awash in azure sea.

In his portraiture, Anderson explores a broad spectrum of tools and techniques to create mesmerizing liquid flesh renderings that convey a distinct and visceral connection to the subject. In what becomes a highly nuanced process of imagination and discovery, his creative edge comes from identifying unexamined ways of marrying material and space to represent both the physical and metaphysical, appearance and personality. Relying on a mutual process of collaboration – an intricate dance, so to speak – between artist and client, Anderson’s gift lies in striking an elusive balance between concept and craft, idea and element, “photo real” and ethereal.

Anderson trained in Florence, Italy and at the San Francisco Academy of Art University (BFA). His work first appeared in the De Young Museum of Fine Arts’ ‘Emerging Artists Exhibition’ of 2001. Since 2002, his monumental oil portraits have been recognized by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and shown in galleries worldwide, with solo and group exhibitions in New York, San Francisco, Venice, and LA. He currently works and lives in Santa Barbara, California. View his versatile collections and learn more about his philosophy at BenjaminAnderson.com.

About the Person Ryan Gallery:

For more than three decades, Leslie Person Ryan has served as founder and owner of Letter Perfect Stationery in Santa Barbara, California. Now, she brings her artistic vision to Summerland, taking up residence in what was previously the “Just Folk” Gallery and establishing the Summerland Center for the Arts, complete with ground floor retail space and a second-floor art gallery. The gallery’s exhibitions will partner with various non-profits to help support the local Santa Barbara community. Visit PersonRyanGallery.com to learn more and discover upcoming exhibits.