Ben Howe (artist)

He holds a Masters of fine art degree with distinction from RMIT University.

Howes work is distinguished by his scientificly-surrealist imagery that is both hyper-realistic yet reductive.^[2] His works have been referred to as ‘isolated or lonely’ and regularly feature a muted or monochromatic palette.^[3] Howe's paintings are often derived from preliminary explorations in other media such as sculpture, photography, and film.^[4][5] His works frequently examine ideas relating to inconsistencies of memory, personal history and the nature of consciousness.^[6] Howe's artwork has been exhibited worldwide. He has had 23 solo exhibitions, including 2 retrospectives, and his work has been included in more than 70 group shows.

Howe was the winner of the 2024 Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture for his enigmatic painting ‘Cartagena Library.^[7]’

In 2023 he won the Eureka prize.^[8] His work ‘Permanent Rose’ was a finalist in 17^th International ARC Salon, and he received a distinction in the Portrait Society of America's 28th annual competition with ‘Matilda in Blue.^[9]’ In 2021 he received an Honourable mention in the Beautiful Bizarre art award.^[10] In 2019, Howe was a finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, and the Lester Prize. He has also been a finalist in the Black Swan Prize (2016), and the Metro 5 Award, (2012 and 2011). In 2017, he won the Hill Smith Prize at NotFair. He has been the recipient of residencies and fellowships including the Ucross Foundation, USA (2015), Shangyuan Art Museum, China (2014), and SKAM, Germany (2007).

Howe's paintings have been featured as cover art on several music releases, book covers and reproduced in magazines and journals including Hi Fructose, Beautiful Bizarre, Selected Contemporary Artists of Australia, Hyperrealism Magazine, Double Dialogues and Out of Step Books. In 2019, his paintings were used in a new publication of Moby Dick, celebrating Herman Melville’s 200th anniversary.^[11]

Howe was a finalist in the 2024 Archibald Prize for his portrait of Kylie Moore-Gilbert and Sami Shah.^[12]

Howe created a series of miniature sculptures to simulate the idea and feeling of an assembly, without any attachment to an actual event.^[13] The dioramas were photographed and rendered in paint, using a technique that appears photographic from a distance, yet becomes more abstracted and painterly with proximity.^[5] Repetition, miniaturisation, and fluctuations between representation and abstraction were used to activate links between the body, movement and memory.

This series reflects a more interior examination of the human psyche, and a counterbalance to Howe's work with crowds. It depicts the peculiar association of subject to physical space. The paintings document and explore the semi-conscious adaptation to new environments experienced by temporary residents; examining how people move into a space and start to inhabit it. Embracing a synthesis of both external and internal realities, the works interweave themes of dislocation, habitation and the subliminal response of the psyche towards the unknown. Howe's use of expressive brushwork, sharp contrasts and spatial distortions illuminate or add information while symbolic elements, informed by the subjects activity, or the artists own reaction to the space, further disrupt the illusion of sheer figurative representation.^[3]

Through a process of creating sculptures that reference aspects of the body and then subjecting the clay forms to dislocation and realignment, Howe reconfigure the Marquette to form new compositions and meanings.^[2] Cut, broken, compacted and rearranged, they are often unrecognizable in the finished paintings, which are contemplation on the fractured and subjective nature of memory, and the effect it has on the construction of identity.^[14] He is known to destroy the sculptures and reuse the same block of clay for every piece.

These paintings address movement within the metropolitan environment, informed by research relating to the examination of aggregate behavior over various duration and viewpoints. Howe attempts to compress this information into single images by building overlapping layers of paint based on video footage and sequential photographs. The paintings are an attempt to show how collective elements reveal potential form over time; the individual and the city part of an integrated whole. Using the constraints and unique material attributes of paint including layering, color, texture and fluctuating levels of focus, Howe explores conflicting ideas of symbiosis, dislocation and placelessnes within contemporary life and the metropolitan crowd.^[3]

2024 Echoes in the Abyss, Compendium Gallery, Melbourne, Australia^[15]

2022 Ashen Rainbow, Compendium Gallery, with Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne, Australia^[16]
2022 The More Things Change, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne, Australia^[17]
2019 Leviathan, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2018 A Strange Architecture, Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide, Australia
2017 Weave, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2017 Selection, Mycelium, Melbourne
2016 Themes of Dislocation and Habitation, St Francis, Melbourne
2015 Monochromatic Anomalies, Lorimer Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2014 Within the Grey, Shangyuan Museum of Modern Art, Beijing, China
2013 The Sum of its Parts, Metro Gallery, Melbourne
2012 Signs, Manyung Gallery, Melbourne
2011 Exploring Transience: locating meaning within the urban crowd. First Site Gallery, Melbourne
2010 Schism Overwrite, As Soon As Gallery, Hamburg
2009 Graffscapes, Manyung Gallery, Melbourne
2008 Urban Fractures 2, 5-502, Sydney
2007 Once Upon a Space, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
2007 Raumatisiert, Wir sind Woanders, European art festival, Hamburg
2007 Urban Fractures, SKAMraum, Hamburg
2006 Surface Variations, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
2004 Forms and shadows, Manyung Gallery, Melbourne
2003 Selected works, Manyung Gallery, Melbourne