About Ben Allen
Ben Allen is a rebel and his art reflects that. When he first started painting in the 90s, he soon realized this could be an outlet for the wild creative energy which distracted him so much in his youth. The application of paint, ink, or collage onto a surface has been a compulsive, therapeutic habit ever since he returned from a trip to Mexico aged 19, where he first encountered the philosophical concepts of perception, inner development, and mind-expansion which underpin the writing of Carlos Castendada, his most significant and recurring influence.
Ben’s paintings, murals, and screen prints occupy a space between street art, graffiti, abstraction, graphic design, pop culture, modernism, and comic strips. It’s an oeuvre that is best described as Contemporary Pop Art. Using a range of materials including acrylic, household paints, spray paint, screen printing, markers, comic books, digital print, billboard papers, and US currency, he makes diverse, intuitive, and boldly subversive imagery.
Ben’s work is built on a foundation of experience, freedom of thought, experimentation, and an ‘emotional synesthesia’. Music is vital to the creative process and the vibrant colors and abstracted forms of his evocative paintings and prints resonate with the beats that reverberate around his bright, open-plan studio. It is connected to emotions, too. The way he feels is reflected in each brushstroke, splatter, or sprayed form, and these actions become an unselfconscious monitor of his mood and energy. Despite this intensity, the finished result is always considered and Ben will work on a number of canvases at any one time, moving between them, adding layers and references until he finds a resolution.
