Ben Reeves at The Equinox

Click here to see some of Ben Reeves' recent work shown at the Equinox gallery in Vancouver. Meg and I stopped in recently to check out some of Ben's painterly affairs, and as usual, we were blown away by his tremendous creativity and determination to produce inspiring works of art. He has pulled off yet another stunner. When you walk into the gallery you see what appear to be faint abstract grey fields on white backgrounds. But as you approach the works you realize that you are looking at relief drawings of... Paintings. Thus the title of the show : Drawing Painting. Ben has literally drafted in accurate relief each and every brush stroke as though the painting that he was drawing was in fact a still life. He has with graphite and charcoal described in the drawings the complex patterning of brush strokes that effectively build the paintings up from the blank canvas. The works are at once abstract and respresentational and it is this curious dialogue that I think Ben is interested in. If all paintings are in fact "built by brush strokes" which taken on their own, one by one, are completely abstract, then at what point is any work more abstract than representational? Or vice versa? It takes some time of viewing to make any sense of this dialogue, but your patience is certainly rewarded. I really liked the show, but that's not saying much, as Ben is definitely preaching to the converted with me! I whole heartedly encourage you to go see the show! If anything, you will simply marvel at Ben's mental fortitude to have stuck with a project that must have required some painstaking hours of near meditative concentration.