Benjamin Hunt
Three Time Art Party Participant
Confessional (after DI)
Artist’s Website
www.benhuntartwork.com
Artist’s Statement
I have had a long time interest in seemingly ordinary everyday objects such as collectible and utilitarian items. I am fascinated by how an object such as a photograph, a piece of furniture or old toys can become a marker of time to a collector. My current work has been focused on creating objects that imbue a sense of captured time and nostalgia through their design, aesthetics and contents. Appropriated photographic imagery and reproduced cast metal objects have been incorporated into my current body of work to emphasize nostalgia and memory, both diminished and reconstructed. I am intrigued by the fragile and seemingly deceptive nature of photographic memory and recollection. The manner in which I work has been a reflection of my observations of passing time, growth and nostalgia contained within the framework of blurred memory.
Clarity and simplicity have been the ultimate goals of my studio practice. My work is constructed by systematically layering materials and imagery upon themselves in order to create volume and texture. The manner in which I work has been a reflection of my observations of commercial production, consumer consumption and growth in both the natural and the industrial senses of the word. The majority of my work is fabricated out of recycled materials and reclaimed, reconstructed and appropriated imagery and cast metal objects.
About the Artist
Ben was born and raised in San Diego, California. He received both a Bachelors of Fine Art and a Masters of Fine Art in Spatial Art from San Jose State University in 2000 and 2008, respectively. While studying at SJSU, Ben worked as a studio assistant to prominent Bay Area sculptors David Middlebrook and Randall Shiroma, as well as Graduate Technical Assistant to artist David Kimball Anderson. In 2008, Ben was invited to be the Visiting Artist and Guest Lecturer in Sculpture at Idaho State University and was the recipient of the International Sculpture Centers award for Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture. Ben moved to Sacramento, California, in 2009. He participated as a resident in the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission “Emerging Public Artist Residency” program in 2011.
Most recently, Ben was awarded the Leff-Davis Fund for Visual Artists by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation. In 2014, he was a participating artist in “Broadway Augmented,” a virtual reality public art project produced by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, California State University, Sacramento and the Greater Broadway Partnership (the Business Association for the Broadway neighborhood in which the project took place). At present, Ben is an Adjunct Lecturer in Sculpture at California State University, Sacramento, and is an exhibition Preparator at the Crocker Art Museum.