After the inevitable fits and starts that have plagued openings, Benjamin Spiers finally makes his Swedish debut with Carl Kostyál Gallery in the enticingly titled Midnight Sombrero, now on view at the Arsenalsgatan 3 space in Stockholm. The artist we first introduced ahead of his solo debut in LA back in February 2019, is back with a new body of work that displays his wide range of interests, influences and talent.
While working on this series since January, the artist experienced a number of significant and painful events and, coupled with the cloud of Covid, the inner turmoil and outer turmoil proved challenging. Regardless, "The strange thing—though perhaps not strange at all—is that I was able to sink even more deeply into my work," Spiers admitted about the turbulence that influenced his creative practice. "I was able to achieve an astonishing degree of focus, despite the tumult and hatful of aches!" His immense capacity for concentration is evident in polished and precise brushstrokes that result in a wholly surreally real world, the kind of visions we experience in dreams, especially the feverish ones. Spiers’ methodical, technical skills, matched by a mastery of styles that include abstract, cubist and figurative and more, bring alive those fears and fantasies that do come around at midnight! However, the London based painter is able to translate them into pulsating concepts on canvas.
The atmosphere in which the work was created emerges from mostly pitch dark backgrounds against which the cast of most impossible subjects are portrayed. From a deconstructed tiger, over a variety of humanoid characters, all the way to abstracted forms, the sinister yet exuberant ambiance is imbued through the presentation. "Ironically, the arrival of COVID 19 coincided with the beginning of my recovery and a greater degree of playfulness appeared in the paintings - some of my more extrovert tendencies began to wake up," the artist told us, in a way explaining the source of this emotive duality. "I think the emotion found its way into the content of those dark winter paintings, and the feelings of loss and fragility were truly sublimated into something that could hold them. These are perhaps the most personal paintings I’ve made so far."
Obsessed with the most minuscule details, from skin tones and surfaces to subtle or vibrant glow or light reflection, this exploration led Spiers back to iPad and Procreate to make preparatory drawings. "It's something I’d not done for a few years. I’m not quite sure why, but I was able to do much more useful thinking with this tool than I could before. It made me feel quite bullish and confident. I wanted to play with wild color and take compositional liberties that I had previously been too inhibited to indulge." In fact, adopting technology marked a renewed interest in abstract work which enhances his illustrative explorations. "I’ve been so focused on figurative work for the last few years that the possibilities of abstraction hadn’t come to the surface. Maybe there was some kind of Pavlovian response to using the iPad that made me want to bring some of the languages of my abstract work back into what I’m doing. However it happened it felt right - like it was a necessary ingredient to pivot out of my introversion."
Working on the final paintings until the last moment, confined the artist to his studio 7 days a week for the last month. "It’s been a time of joyful productivity and energy. I’ve been able to think clearly and act decisively. Things might have got a little ragged in the last week, and I definitely need a break now." —Sasha Bogojev
