Chances are, if you’ve walked the streets of Shoreditch or Brick Lane at any point over the last three years, you’ll have walked passed some of Ben Slow’s artwork. Known for his large-scale photorealistic black and white portraits and his immaculate attention to detail, Ben is very much a staple of the East London street art scene. With a strong focus around the local community, Ben’s subjects’ range from Sandra, landlady of the Golden Heart, the “King of Bacon St., Charlie Burns and possibly his most well-known piece, the screaming faces of two right-wing extremists (pictured). His work has already seen him paint in the Royal Albert Hall and sent him half way around the world to paint in rural South Africa. I met up with Ben at his studio in Hackney Wick to talk about his upcoming debut solo show, New Endings, which, as he tells me, is his chance to show that he is much more “than a street artist that can paint pretty pictures.”
It doesn’t take long inside his studio to get an understanding of how much work has been going into this show. Behind his relatively calm and playful personality, somewhere amongst the countless cans of spraypaint, the used brushes and half finished canvases, you realise that Ben certainly isn’t messing about.
Coming from a Fine Art background Ben defines himself predominantly as an artist that occasionally paints on the street. For most, this will be their first chance to see Ben’s work away from the urban art gallery of East London’s walls. All too aware of this Ben is set on giving people a chance to see a whole new side to his direction.
“For this show I’ve started to juxtapose elements of realism with much more abstract marks, trying to strike the right balance between the two.”
Promising enough familiarity to keep the avid fans content, Ben is breaching new territory to make sure everyone is kept on their toes. A series of canvases will be anchoring New Endings, however Ben has also been furiously working on a range of screen-prints. By no means are these your regular run-of-the-mill prints. Ben has been hand-finishing each of the forty prints, making sure no matter what your budget, there’s something special available.
If you find yourself in Central London throughout March, make sure you duck off Oxford Street and pay a visit to the Exposure Gallery. If the attention to detail Ben puts into his paintings is anything to go by, there’s a strong possibility you’ll find him there, putting in that extra mile.
You can see Ben’s exhibition between 8th-29th March at Exposure Gallery.
Exposure gallery, 22-23 Little Portland Street, Mayfair, London, W1W 8BU
For more info. www.slowbenart.com or www.facebook.com/benslowart