Ben Sanderson

Ben has been producing a series of large-scale paintings that will be installed at MIRROR to form wall-like structures. His practice often involves revisiting existing pieces and transforming them. This body of work is an amalgamation of old and new works in various states: primed and carefully painted, cropped and quilted back together again, pulped and pressed into rag paper, and all the gestural spaces in between.

Designed to have a more deliberate ‘front’ and a more accidental ‘back’, the paintings will be presented as a sequence of spaces that can be navigated from any direction. Constant change is embraced and so is the uncertainty this necessitates. Sanderson’s contemplation of the edge and liminality in gardens encourages us to explore garden spaces in various scales, from the local to the national, the conscious to the unconscious. Ben will be exploring these themes, along with the temporality of painting, in a text written in conversation with a psychoanalyst.

Ben Sanderson is an artist, working in painting, drawing and textiles based in Helston, Cornwall. His work often returns to existing pieces and transforms them: monotypes on paper are developed and echoes in printed elements that appear on canvas; canvas is sewn and patched together or mulched to become rag paper, which in turn becomes a ground for a new painting.

The South West Showcase is a recurring project, established by MIRROR in 2013 as a strategic response to the lack of talent development and professional exhibition opportunities for artists based in the region. The showcase aims to support contemporary artists working and living in the South West through a year-long programme of mentoring and support with an exhibition outcome, presenting a long-term commitment to profiling and supporting the practices of artists in this region.