BEN ARONSON NEW YORK MINUTES
4
5
Ben Aronson New York Minutes October 8 - November 13
Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com cover: Crosswalk, 2021, Oil on panel, 11" x 14"
Ben Aronson | New York Minutes Ben Aronson is recognized as one of America's most respected and evocative painters of the contemporary urban landscape. His signature synthesis of realism and abstraction expressively translates everyday forms of metropolitan life – rooftops, skyscrapers, streets, stop signs, and sidewalks – into resplendent arrangements of geometry and motion, light, and shadow. Through his masterful, loosely painted evocations of atmosphere, color, and light, Aronson’s remarkable paintings convey the sensory experience of a captured moment in the life of a city. The artist’s expressive painterly style is characterized by fluid, yet restrained brushwork. “The main objective is not merely to capture physical likeness,” Aronson says, “but rather to aim for the most concentrated form of a powerful visual experience.” This gestural application of paint – while underpinned by remarkable precision – conveys his imagery through suggestions of implied movement and space. Aronson renders this sophisticated engagement with the urban world in fleeting glimpses of movement and evanescent light – the cosmopolitan grid alternately sharpened and blurred into areas of streaking geometry and hard-edged shadow. Ben Aronson studied at the School of Fine Arts at Boston University under Reed Kay, John Wilson, and James Weeks, who introduced Aronson to the Bay Area Figurative Movement. Aronson was also under the tutelage of Philip Guston and worked as his studio assistant. Ben Aronson was the recipient of the 2006 Childe Hassam Purchase Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Aronson’s paintings are included in the permanent collections of more than fifty museums, including the de Young Museum in San Francisco; National Academy Museum, New York; Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Eli & Edythe Broad Museum, Michigan; Houston Museum of Fine Arts; New Mexico Museum of Art; and the Orangerie in Gera, Germany, among others.
2
Brooklyn Bridge, 2021 Oil on panel, 32.5" x 24" 3
Along the Hudson, 2021 Oil on panel, 12" x 12" 4
Sunset, Near Columbus Circle, 2021 Oil on panel, 12" x 12" 5
6
Rising Sun, 5th Avenue, 2021 Oil on panel, 11" x 14" 7
St. Patrick's in Snow, 2021 Oil on panel, 12" x 12" 8
Downtown Over Broadway, 2021 Oil on panel, 36" x 13 3/8" 9
Twilight on Madison, 2014 Oil on panel, 12" x 12" 10
Rain, Fifth Avenue, 2021 Oil on panel, 30" x 30" 11
Early Spring, Manhattan, 2021 Oil on panel, 11" x 14" 12
Merging Traffic, Closed Ramp Series, 2014 Oil on panel, 50" x 38" 13
Night Rain, Union Square, 2021 Oil on panel, 11" x 14" 14
Lifting Skies, Chelsea, 2021 Oil on panel, 12" x 12" 15
Dawn, Manhattan, 2011 Oil on panel, 30" x 32" 16
Spring Morning, Fifth Avenue, 2014 Oil on panel, 60" x 60" 17
Taxis on Madison, 2016 Oil on panel, 60" x 60" 18
72nd St. Subway Station, 2004 Oil on canvas, 68" x 66" 19
Closed Ramp, 2007 Four color intaglio etching, 23 1/2" x 20 7/8" 20
Ben Aronson b. 1958, Boston, MA
AWARDS 2006
Childe Hassam Purchase Prize, American Academy of Arts
EDUCATION
and Letters, New York, NY
1980-82 MFA in Painting, Boston University, MA
2005
Academician Appointment, National Academy of Design,
1976-80 BFA in Painting, Boston University, MA
New York, NY
2004
Benjamin Altman Landscape Prize, National Academy of
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Design, New York, NY
2021
New York Minutes, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
J. Sanford Saltus Gold Medal, National Academy of Design,
2019
Views From Above, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
New York, NY
2017
Perspective and the Ephemeral, LewAllen Galleries,
1992
Ogden M. Pleissner Painting Award, National Academy of
Santa Fe, NM
Design, New York, NY
2014
Light and Memory, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San
1988
The Blanche E. Coleman Award for Painting
Francisco, CA
Rhode Island State Council for the Arts Grant
2013
Cityscapes, Asheville Art Museum, NC
The St. Botolph Foundation Grant in Painting
Cityscapes, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA
1986
The Blanche E. Coleman Award for Painting
2011
Ann Norton Sculpture Museum, West Palm Beach, FL
Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME
SELECTED PUBLIC & INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS
Here and Now, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
Francisco, CA
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH
2010
Risk and Reward, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY
Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA
2009
The Urban Signature, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA
DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA
2008
Urban Currents, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
The Figure in Context, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San
Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, CO
Francisco, CA
de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA
2007
Explorations, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San
Eli and Edythe Broad Museum of Art, East Lansing, MI
Francisco, CA
Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA
2006
Recent Works, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA
Mazovian Museum, Plock, Poland
2005
Recent Works, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2004
Painterly Visualizations, Jenkins Johnson Gallery,
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
San Francisco, CA
National Academy Museum, New York, NY
2003
DFN Gallery, New York, NY
National Museum of Fine Arts, Malta
2002
Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA
New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
2000
Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA
New Orleans Museum of Art, LA
1999
Scott White Contemporary, La Jolla, CA
Ogunquit Museum of American Art, ME Orlando Museum of Art, FL
1998
Sydney Bernard Fine Arts, Hollywood, CA
Palm Springs Art Museum, CA
1997
MB Modern, New York, NY
San Diego Museum of Art, CA
1996
Horwitch Newman Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA
Jerry Solomon Gallery, Hollywood, CA
21 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
22
23
Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com © 2021 LewAllen Contemporary, LLC 24 Artwork © Ben Aronson