Tethered to Gravity
Glorious rich saturated colours create scenes that oscillate between reality and utopia. Expressions and emotions are held in the gestural figures, some caught in conversation, others alone and perhaps contemplative. The dexterous juxtaposition of brights and darks pulse off each other creating depth and movement. A set of techniques that combine to create alluring images of time past and time present.
Storytelling is at the heart of Crawford’s practice. Each piece in this series references the creek running through the Currumbin Valley in Queensland where Ben Crawford lives. These are vignettes of stories past and contemporary imaginings. Reflections are both literal and metaphorical.
Crawford sees the valley as a frontier of possibilities. Once a bird sanctuary, now the site of a hippy commune, a children’s playground, a health resort, a wedding venue, a park. Sanctuary references the barrier that might have once existed when there was a bird sanctuary in the valley, it leaves us wondering which side of the boundary we and the figure are on, are we in or out. On close inspection we can see birdlike figures peppered through the fencing, equally ambiguous.
Several scenes show children frozen as if waiting for something to happen. In Tethered to Gravity a figure stands alone, a little separated from the group. There is a sense of tension between the groups, is he turning his back on them or welcoming someone who is out of scene?
Explosions of foliage in Fearful Symmetry and Possibilities
Frontier demonstrate Crawford’s wonderfully expressive handling of vegetation. In this work and Long Tan Apparitions are halfformed figures, like memories of people. Tantalising possibilities exist in each work.
Arcadian Dreamers has a Gaugin-esque use of colour and is the
result of Crawford imagining what goes on inside the commune in the valley. Here Crawford has taken the opportunity to play with pattern and colour in the clothing, also seen in Did you get Healed? An equally fantastical imagining of baptism. There is a simplicity to these scenes.
If part of Gaugin’s legacy rests partly in his dramatic decision to reject the materialism of contemporary culture in favour of a more spiritual, unfettered lifestyle, it feels like Crawford is echoing these sentiments.
Crawford uses heightened colours to distort the scenes from reality. His paintings are less about real representation and more about evoking a feeling. This is what binds his work to that of Charlotte Edsell who shows alongside him in this exhibition.
Possibility’s frontier, 2024
Ben Crawford
Born 1983, Cork, Ireland
Lives and works in Currumbin Valley, Australia
EDUCATION
2007 - BA HONS/ Fine Art, Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork, Ireland
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 - Between Addresses, Boom Gallery, Geelong, VIC, Australia
2023 - A Slow Migration, Curatorial and Co, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2023 - All Was Lost And Found In The Song Of The Butcher Bird, Boom Gallery, Geelong, VIC, Australia
2022 - The Unwritten Places, Boom Gallery, Geelong, VIC, Australia
2021 - An Outlaw for My Love, Curatorial and Co, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2020 - Eighty Eight Miles Per Hour, Boom Gallery, Geelong, VIC, Australia
2017 - Spotlight Artist September, Retrospect Galleries, Byron Bay, NSW, Australia
2008 - The Sheer Unspeakable Strangeness of Being Here at All, The Shaw Gallery, Cork, Ireland
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 - Miniatures for Macmillan, Candida Stevens Gallery, Sussex, UK
2023 - Summer Salon, Boom Gallery, Geelong, VIC, Australia
2023 - Darlings, Curatorial and Co, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2023 - BAM Arts Prize, NRC Ballina, NSW, Australia
2023 - If You Could Save One Place, Candida Stevens at London Art Fair, UK
2022 - Darlings, Curatorial and Co, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2022 - Place - Displace, Candida Stevens Gallery, Sussex, UK
2022 - Offspring Project, Charity Auction, Geelong, VIC, Australia
2022 - Art on a Postcard, Charity Auction, UK
2022 - Women Up North, Charity Auction, Curatorial and Co, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2021 - Darlings, Curatorial and Co, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2021 - Natura Morta, Boom Gallery, Geelong, VIC, Australia
2021 - Art for Charity Collective, Online art auction, UK
2021 - Selection of works alongside other Boom artists, Boom Gallery, Geelong, VIC, Australia
2021 - Top 100, The Auction Collective, London, UK.
2021 - Bucolia, Blue Shop Cottage, London, UK
2021 - A Space Between, Online art auction, Art For Charity Collective, UK
2020 - Darlings, Curatorial and Co, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2020 - Art for Charity Collective, Online art auction, UK
2020 - Nearness, Boom Gallery, Geelong, VIC, Australia
2019 - Marking Time, Boom Gallery, Geelong, VIC, Australia
2018 - BAM Arts Prize, Thom Gallery, Byron Bay, NSW, Australia
2018 - Memory and Paint, Boom Gallery, Geelong, VIC, Australia
2017 - We’re Closer Than You Think, Lismore Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Australia
2010 - Happiness, The Lavit Gallery, Cork, Ireland
2010 - Winter Show, The Lavit Gallery, Cork, Ireland
2008 - Two Man Show with Brían Crotty, Crackpots Gallery, Kinsale, Ireland
2008 - CASe '08, The Lavit Gallery, Cork, Ireland
2007 - Recent Graduates Exhibition, Joan Clancy Gallery, Dungarvan, Ireland
2007 - Fledglings, The Lavit Gallery, Cork, Ireland
2007 - RDS Student Art Awards, RDS, Dublin, Ireland
2007 - Degree Show, Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork, Ireland
AWARDS
2023 - BAM Arts Prize – Finalist
2018 - BAM Arts Prize – Finalist
Published in October 2024 by Candida Stevens Gallery on the occasion of an exhibition featuring the work of Ben Crawford.
Catalogue ©Candida Stevens Gallery
Photography ©Dan Stevens
Text © the authors
All rights reserved
