Edgy
Benjamin Terry
Dallas-based artist Benjamin Terry presents the gallery’s first ever online exhibition, Edgy. This collection of paintings was produced while in residence at 100 West Corsicana, an international artist residency located 60 miles southwest of Dallas in Corsicana, TX. Terry spent four weeks at the residency in January of 2020 where he pushed his paintings on wood in a new direction.
Known for intricately constructed objects that combine painting, drawing, and sculpture (as exhibited in his 2019 exhibition A Romantic Gesture), the works in Edgy appear deceivingly simplified. In the absence of the artist’s characteristically dense line work, these paintings approach craftsmanship from another angle. Cutouts are made to appear clumsy, initially masking the high level of skill required to create them. New methods of paint application create hazy clouds of color that play with depth perception. In the end, the paintings encapsulate sophistication and crudeness all at once.
In the words of the artist: “be clever. then, be dumb.”
Enjoy free shipping on works in this online exhibition through April 15th.
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Work in progress at 100W Corsicana.
“I find comfort in awkwardness. Frumpy, clunky, shapes. Lines that meander. Color that either screams at you, or hides quietly in the corner. A true reflection of my personality.”
Watch: An interview with Benjamin Terry
Works in progress at 100W Corsicana.
“To be clear, gradients and airbrushed paintings have been a trend running rampant in painting for what seems like much too long now. Like the drip or the impasto brush stroke, it’s a seductive little painting trope. It’s just too damn slick and sexy to be ignored. So naturally, I’ve avoided it’s enticing song for fear of being devoured by the siren”
“One day, while testing out a new can of spray paint, I softly laid in a transition from the deep, muted wine color I had just purchased, into a scrap of saturated blue plywood. I immediately felt the joy of that fluffy spray painted edge, countered by the hard, janky edge of the plywood. I was hooked. The baggage of this played out trope was no longer a concern of mine.”
Watch interview with the artist
Benjamin Terry lives and works in Dallas, TX. He received an MFA in Drawing and Painting in 2013, from the University of North Texas. He has exhibited work in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the country including Atlanta, Baltimore, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Dallas, and Houston. He recently had solo exhibitions at Art League Houston, Ro2 Art, and Guerrero-Projects. Terry was an artist-in-resident at The Maple Terrace in Brooklyn in the spring of 2018. Curatorial work has become an integral part of his practice with exhibitions curated at Kirk Hopper Fine Arts (Dallas), Circuit12 Contemporary (Dallas), and Texas Woman’s University (Denton) in 2017. He was featured in volume 96 and 132 of New American Paintings, and has received both the Clare Hart Degoyler and the Arch and Anne Giles Kimbrough awards from the Dallas Museum of Art. He is currently a Professor of Practice at the University of Texas Arlington.