Visual artist, teacher and composer based in Melbourne, Australia and Hamburg, Germany.
The bulk of my work circles issues of representation, structure and consciousness. Coming from a background of hyper realist painting, I often produce the initial subjects in sculptural form, and use them as the basis for my artworks. Other works have more political leanings and initiate dialogues concerning gentrification, aesthetic beauty and mass movements.
Education
2011 Master of Fine Art, HD, RMIT University
2001 Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education, Monash University
1998 Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting), RMIT University
Solo Exhibitions
2018 A Strange Architecture, Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide, Australia
2018 Gallimaufry, Melbourne Studio of Art, Melbourne, Australia
2017 Weave, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2017 Selection, Mycelium, Melbourne
2016 Themes of Dislocation and Habitation, St Francis, Melbourne
2015 Monochroamatic Anomalies, Lorimer Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2014 Within the Grey, Shangyuan Museum of Modern Art, Beijing, China
2013 The Sum of its Parts, Metro Gallery, Melbourne
2012 Signs, Manyung Gallery, Melbourne
2011 Exploring Transience: locating meaning within the urban crowd. First Site Gallery, Melbourne
2010 Schism Overwrite, As Soon As Gallery, Hamburg
2009 Graffscapes, Manyung Gallery, Melbourne
2008 Urban Fractures 2, 5-502, Sydney
2007 Once Upon a Space, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
2007 Raumatisiert, Wir sind Woanders, Europien art festival, Hamburg
2007 Urban Fractures, SKAMraum, Hamburg
2006 Surface Variations, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
2004 Forms and shadows, Manyung Gallery, Melbourne
2003 Selected works, Manyung Gallery, Melbourne
Selected Group Exhibitions
2018 Ephemeral, Modern Eden Gallery, San Fransisco, USA
2018 Australian Art, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne
2018 Focal Point: New Realist Painting. Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide
2018 Dark Art Show, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne
2017 NotFair 2017, Melbourne
2017 The 13th Hour, Last Rites Gallery, New York, USA
2017 If Our days won’t Last, Distinction Gallery, Escondido, CA, USA
2017 Art collecter starter kit, Corey Helford Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2016 Metro Summer Show 2016, Melbourne
2016 Beinart Small Works 2016, Melbourne
2016 Metropolis, Manyung Gallery, Melbourne
2016 Transmogrify, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne
2016 Beinart Inaugural Exhibition, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne
2014 Shangyuan Resident Artists 2014
2014 Ben Howe and HaHa – Second Story Studio, Melbourne
2014 Strange Attractor, D11 Docklands
2013 Supporters Exhibition, D11 Docklands
2013 Urban, Manyung Gallery, Melbourne
2013 Your Old Self, Tinning Street Gallery, Melbourne
2012 Exploration 12. Flinders Land Gallery, Melbourne
2012 Melbourne Art fair, Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2012 Matter and Space. Ne Na Contemporary Art Space, Chiang Mai, Thailand
2012 Possibilities, Metro Gallery, Melbourne
2012 Dark Horse. The Dark Horse Experiment, Melbourne
2012 It’s Not You, It’s Me, Eckersley's Open Space Gallery, Melbourne
2012 Climate Change. Metro Gallery, Melbourne
2011 RMIT Master of Fine Art Graduate Exhibition. Gossard Project Space, Melbourne
2011 The Brunswick Show, Donkey Wheel House, Melbourne
2011 Space and the city, Eckersley's Open Space Gallery. Melbourne
2011 Surface: Texture, Materiality and Conceptual Plasticity, RMIT School of Art Gallery, Melbourne.
2010 SoBright, Prague, Melbourne
2010 New, Used and Abused, Loft Gallery, Melbourne
2010 The Brunswick Show, Donkey Wheel House, Melbourne
2010 Irenes Street art festival, Irene, Melbourne
2010 Out of Nowhere, 696 INK, Melbourne
2010 Grand Opening Show, 696 INK, Melbourne
2010 Urban Art 10A, Brunswick St Gallery, Melbourne
2009 Gaengeviertel, Hamburg
2009 Melbourne stencil festival, Collingwood, Melbourne
2009 Art Melbourne, Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2009 Painting 09A, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
2007 Stencil and Freeform Combinations, A.S.A, Hamburg
2007 Art Melbourne, Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2003 Selected Contemporary Artists of Australia, Manyung Gallery, Melbourne
1997 Contingency, RMIT Graduate Show, Span Galleries, Melbourne
Couturial
2009 Pigeon hole 4, The Pigeon Hole, Melbourne
2009 Pigeon hole 3, The Pigeon Hole, Melbourne
2009 Conduit, Brunswick street gallery, Melbourne
2009 Pigeon hole 2, The Pigeon Hole, Melbourne
2008 Pigeon hole 1, The Pigeon Hole, Melbourne
Residencies / Teaching and Related Activities
2016 Double Dialogues: Why do things Break Symposium: ‘Instances of Anomaly’, University of Adelaide
2015 Residency: Ucross Foundation, Wyoming, USA
2014 Residency: Shangyuan Modern Art Museum, Beijing, China
2013-14 Teacher, Melbourne Studio of Art, Elsternwick, Australia
2009 Organised Creative Warehouse Network, Brunswick/Northcote, Australia
2008 Established ‘Pigeon Hole Studios’, Brunswick, Australia
2007 Residency: SKAM, Hamburg, Germany
2005 Research and Teaching: India, Egypt and Europe
2002 – 2009 Teacher, secondary school and adult education. Australia/ U.K / Germany
Awards and Honours
2018 Bluethumb, Finalist
2017 Hill Smith Award
2016 Black Swan, Finalist
2015 Whyalla Art Prize, Finalist
2014 Doug Moran Semi Finalist
2014 Ian Potter Cultural Trust
2014 Cliftons Art prize, Finalist
2012 Metro Award, Finalist
2012 Doug Moran, Shortlisted
2012 RMIT Vice Chancellors List Award for academic excellence
2011 Dark Horse MFA Award
2011 Metro Award, Finalist
2009 Window Frames, Winner
2009 Melbourne stencil festival, emerging artist Award
2008 I Art Sydney Road, 1st prize
2008 Small works 08, Brunswick Street Gallery, Highly commended
Interviews and Publications
2018 Beautiful Bizare issue 20, Waxing and Weaving Realities, Justine Morrow, March
2017 Beinart.org, In conversation with Ben Howe, Luke Barrett, September
2017 HiFructose, Ben Howe’s Arresting New Oil Paintings, Andy Smith, September
2017 Ethics in an Age of Surveilance, Adam Henschke, Cambridge University Press, July
2017 Illusion Scene 360 Magazine, Hyperrealistic Paintings of Fragmented Faces by Ben Howe, Hayley Evans, March
2017 Artospcective.com, Paintings by Ben Howe, Australia, Manav Singhi, March
2016 Daub Daily, Ben Howe: Piece By Piece, AJ Pügh, May
2016 HiFructose, Ben Howe’s Surface Variations’ Feature Eerie, Distorted Faces, Margot Buermann, July
2015 The Art and the Curious, Art Diary 1, Celeste Hawkins, Dec
2015 Heavy Metal Magazine, TheBeinart Collective: A Shared Facination of the Surreal, issue #278, Dec
2015 The Arts show, J-Air Radio, Alex McCulloch and Demian Gibbons, 25 Nov
2015 The Arts show, Highlands FM 100.7 FM, Ben Howe and Demian Gibbons, Alex McCulloch. Interview 07 July
2014 China Broadway, Ben Howe, 1 July, pp 129
2014 Undercoat, Ben Howe, Constructed Space, Eric Brotchie, 5 March
2013 Stonnington Leader, Fitting Together Pieces of Humanity, Susan Windmiller, 23 April
2013 Three Thousand, Ben Howe, The Sum of its Parts, Toby Fehlly, 22 April
2012 Nortcote Leader, Thornbury painter's hyper-real creations receive recognition, Michael Gleeson, 24 July
2012 theconversation.edu.au, Can art change minds where science can’t? ProfessorAnn McCulloch, 11 Feb
2012 The 730 reports, Artists paint a different picture of climate change, Justine Kerr 26 Jan
2012 Aesthetic Perceptions of Climate Change. Alan Woodruff, ProfessorAnn McCulloch
2012 City and Populace: an exploration in Paint. Ben Howe, 3 March
2009 Moreland leader, Pigeon Artists Fire Up Coop, Brigid O’Connell, 25 March
2009 Art Catalyst, Interview with Paul Ruiz, 10 March
2009 Creative Brunswick Documentary, Interview with Darcy Gladwin,
2008 Mornington Leader, Graffiti artist Defends his Work, Dec
2008 Pedro TV, Interview with Peter Mcguiness, 11 August
2007 SBS Radio, Feuilleton für die Ohren, Interview. 11 Dec
2004 Selected Contemporary Artists of Australia. Michael Berry. Published by Krispin Pty Ltd.