Ben Long

Ben Long defines his approach to making artwork as “devising activities that aim to engage diverse audiences, particularly those people who would ordinarily have little or no involvement with contemporary art.” Accessibility and immediate impact of his on-going project The Great Travelling Art Exhibition have been amongst the very qualities that rightfully earned this artist public acclaim. This multidisciplinary project gathers under its title a series of interventions into public spaces that seek to unite art with daily life. To fulfil this objective, Ben Long produces drawings made in the dirt that gathers on the rear shutters of haulage trucks. The artist draws using his fingers, a process that offers him an immediacy of mark-making not available when using a pencil or a brush. Once complete, the drawings travel the world for all to see and enjoy.

For the second phase of The Great Travelling Art Exhibition, Ben Long constructs large-scale public sculptures using conventional scaffolding components. The project has been directly inspired by the artist’s experience working as a labourer on building sites. The scaffolding sculptures, like the truck drawings in the series, are of transitory nature, and may only last a number of months. However, using the scaffolding as a ‘sculptural kit’ enables the artist to regularly create new permutations around the British Isles, continually improving his skills in this unusual medium.

The archetypal nature of the subject matter in both the drawings and sculptures plays an important role in making immediate impact. Long carefully selects his images on the basis of their mass audience appeal, choosing motifs that extensive cultural use has elevated to the status of a symbolic object. These motifs – a bird, a puppy, a fighter-pilot – can be encountered in daily life in logos and pub signs, but can also stand for idealized expressions of hope, love, power.

Born in Lancaster, England in 1978, Ben Long lives and works in London.

Education
2001-2003: BA, Camberwell College of Art, London, UK

Solo Exhibitions
2008: ‘The Great Travelling Art Exhibition’, Man&Eve, London
2006: ‘The Great Travelling Art Exhibition’, Man&Eve, London

Selected Group Exhibitions
2008: ‘NEXT art fair’, Chicago
2007: ‘Drawn Apart – West’, Day & Faber, London – ‘Drawn Apart – East’, Contemporary Art Projects, London – ‘Year_07 Art Projects’, London – ‘Aqua Wynwood’, Miami
2005: ‘Street Art’, Washington DC, USA
2004: ‘The Big Draw’, The Pump House – ‘The Line Fell Off The Page’, 004 Biennale of Sydney, Australia
2003: ‘The Big Draw’, The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead UK
2002: ‘Northern Soul’, 198 Gallery, London UK

Prizes/Awards
‘Prospects Contemporary Drawing Prize’ Short-list – ‘Essor Gallery’, London UK

Published work and Reviews
Dazed and Confused, Grafik, South London Press, Got Done Magazine, Re-Action Magazine, Desktop Magazine–Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Wentworth Courier–Australia, The Sydney Magazine (SMH), Artlink Vol. 24–Australia, The Sydney City Hub–Australia, Oyster Magazine–Australia, Guardian supplement–UK, ID Magazine–UK, Strada Magazine–UK, Scene Scania–UK, The Australian, The Sun–UK, The Daily Mail–UK, The Guardian–UK, The Metro–London South London Press–London, Time Out–London, The Daily Star–UK, The Evening Standard–London , The Telegraph–UK.