Shop Gum
Shop Gum
Have you heard of The Chewing Gum Man?
You might have heard of the The Chewing Gum Man. He’s an artist called Ben Wilson who paints tiny pictures on the black blobs of chewing gum that cover all of our pavements. Muswell Hill in North London has loads of them because that’s where he lives, apparently. I’ve just heard that he’s got an exhibition coming up in September in Duke Street, St James’s and it looks really interesting. It’s of a group of black and white paintings that he did while sitting in a coffee shop in 2004 before he started working on the streets. They’re over a metre long, incredibly detailed and really well priced for an original artwork.
All the works in September’s exhibition were painted over an intensely productive 12 month period in a Muswell Hill coffee shop where many locals recall Ben concentrating intently on these minutely detailed works. The paintings show a strong narrative emphasized by their lack of colour and reflect Ben’s concerns over our social landscape and of the alienation that can be felt in our own environment.
Often, a semblance of a cityscape is evident with pathways directing the viewer sideways through the scroll-like picture encountering along the way depictions of man and nature and issues of freedom and confinement. This subject matter was influenced by Ben’s experiences during a trip to Finland where he had lived and sculpted in the country’s beautiful natural landscape and witnessed its co-existence with the more brutal, commercial industry of fox breeding.
Together, Ben’s Nordic exposure, sculptural background and concerns about our surroundings have culminated in this dramatic and thought provoking ‘black and white’ series.
What’s interesting is that Ben has never sought commercial success so this exhibition gives a rare opportunity for a wider audience to view his work. Visitors looking closely may even be able to spot a new jewel-like gum painting near the gallery on Duke Street which coincidentally is thought to be the first London street to have a pavement.
There’s only 31 works and they have never been seen before so I doubt they’ll be around long. Take a look on ForOneWeekOnly.com. The show is, as the website says, for one week only, so be careful you don’t miss it!
About the Author
Foroneweekonly is proud to present its inaugural show with an exciting exhibition of paintings by artist Ben Wilson – for one week only! 31 works from Ben’s ‘Black and White’ series are available for sale from 14th to 20th September at 37 Duke Street, St James’s.
Gum and phone, is it cool?
What about wonnabe society?. Driving with a cell phone in his mouth .. n F., speak loudly on the phone while you are about to pay at the counter and listening to all problems in the detail of this idiot has his family to go shopping?, gum chewing in school and during final exams, the loud music that could make you deaf base, even from far away, where is the culture, what happened to morality?, did these idiots had a family? Are they from another planet? Society do they belong to or belonging to these idiots?
PPL these are the future of America that is why we are doomed … and the fact that they have elected a Muslim for president
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 at 2:31 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.