About Ben

Baltimore City

Ben Piwowar is a Baltimore-based artist whose practice combines painting, drawing, and site-resposive installation. His work uses abstraction and material play to reflect on fragility, adaptation, and regeneration.

He received an MFA in studio art from the University of Connecticut in 2011 and holds undergraduate degrees in painting and literature from the University of Maryland. Notable exhibitions include solo shows at School 33 Art Center in Baltimore and VisArts in Rockville (MD… more

Against Weather (2016)

Solo exhibition at VisArts Rockville (Common Ground Gallery), winter 2016. For this exhibition I created a temporary installation encompassing the entire gallery space. I populated the room with objects, drawings, and sculptural gestures over a period of roughly three weeks. The piece was improvised in the gallery with minimal preparation in my home studio, using a wide range of construction detritus collected over the past three years.

Total dimensions of installation: 10 ft. (h) x 13 ft. (w) x 16 ft. (h)
  • Against Weather
    Against Weather
    Partial view of Against Weather, a solo project that encompassed the entire space of the Common Ground Gallery in VisArts at Rockville. The entire installation was improvised on site over a three-week period using salvaged materials.
  • Against Weather
    Against Weather
  • Against Weather
    Against Weather
  • Against Weather
    Against Weather
  • Against Weather
    Against Weather
  • Against Weather
    Against Weather
  • Against Weather
    Against Weather
  • Against Weather
    Against Weather
  • Dear Lightning
    Dear Lightning
    Sofa leg, paint, custom shelf. 2016. Standalone piece embedded in the Against Weather installation.
  • what silence won't sit still
    what silence won't sit still
    Salvaged wood, drawing fragments, broken plastic tray, colored foil. 2016. Standalone piece embedded in Against Weather installation.

Paintings 2014-2016

Paintings completed 2014-2016.

  • Blinks
    Blinks

    Oil on panel, 10 in. x 8 in.

  • First Proof
    First Proof

    Oil on canvas, 20 in. x 16 in.

  • Dilemma Rodeo
    Dilemma Rodeo
    oil on panel, 10 in. x 10 in.
  • singing what it practiced its whole life
    singing what it practiced its whole life

    Oil on panel, 16 in. x 16 in., 2015

  • Hoda
    Hoda
    oil on canvas, 10 in. x 10 in.
  • Mind of Winter
    Mind of Winter
    oil on panel, 18 in. x 18 in.
  • Pink's Fine
    Pink's Fine
    oil on panel, 10 in. x 10 in.

works on paper, 2014-2017

A selection from hundreds of small works on paper made over the past few years. In my studio practice as a whole, I see these drawings as both an autonomous body of work and as a thread that connects my parallel bodies of work in painting and sculptural installation. Created in short sessions with a variety of drawing media on (frequently irregular) paper fragments, these generally range between 4 in. x 3 in. and 9 in. x 6 in.
  • a wearable garment
    a wearable garment
    Two-sided drawing, reflective mylar, various nails. 2017.
  • a wearable garment
    a wearable garment
    Alternate view. Two-sided drawing, reflective mylar, various nails. 2017.
  • Soft Obstacle
    Soft Obstacle
    Ongoing, variable installation of small unframed works on paper. 2014-present.
  • Soft Obstacle
    Soft Obstacle
    Detail view of Soft Obstacle, an ongoing, variable installation made from a large body of small unframed works on paper. 2014-present.
  • EL
    EL
    Graphite and spray paint on paper, with tape. Approx. 7 in. x 5 in., 2017.

Sculpture/Installation 2015

Installation work made with salvaged materials and studio ephemera for exhibitions in 2015-2016.

My artistic practice is a hybrid of drawing, object manipulation, and site-responsive construction. Through these overlapping activities I engage with a variety of salvaged materials. I choose to work with things that are marked or shaped by prior use—contractors’ trash, unfinished drawings, detritus found on walks, leavings of other people’s projects. These materials are minimally modified in the studio before they are brought to the exhibition space, where relationships between fragmentary components are developed on-site through intuitive arrangement and re-orientation.

The objects that populate my installations function like displaced characters or invasive organisms learning to survive in new territory; in negotiating both their individual presences and a cumulative identity, they labor to establish a kind of microclimate within the gallery. This is both a meditation on fragility and a wry salute to the human capacity to make use and make do: the will to adapt to uncertain conditions and the resourcefulness to manage with what is on hand.
  • Skitter Index
    Skitter Index
    Objects, paint, drawing. 2015.
  • Skitter Index
    Skitter Index
    Detail view
  • Skitter Index
    Skitter Index
    Detail view
  • Skitter Index
    Skitter Index
    Detail view
  • Nesting Studies #3 (corner, alarm)
    Nesting Studies #3 (corner, alarm)
    Wood, cable, tape, fabric, nails, paint. 2015.

Sculpture/Installation 2014-2015

Selected works completed in 2014 and 2015.


My artistic practice is a hybrid of drawing, object manipulation, and site-responsive construction. Through these overlapping activities I engage with a variety of salvaged materials. I choose to work with things that are marked or shaped by prior use—contractors’ trash, unfinished drawings, detritus found on walks, leavings of other people’s projects. These materials are minimally modified in the studio before they are brought to the exhibition space, where relationships between fragmentary components are developed on-site through intuitive arrangement and re-orientation.

The objects in my installations function like displaced characters or invasive organisms learning to survive in new territory; in negotiating both their individual presences and a cumulative identity, they labor to establish a kind of microclimate within the gallery. This is both a meditation on fragility and a material meditation on the human capacity to make use and make do: the will to adapt to uncertain conditions and the resourcefulness to persist with what is on hand.

  • Countertenor
    Countertenor
    Site-specific wall painting with line drawing, painted wood blocks, fabric, tape. 16 in. x 16 in. x 4 in.
  • Skitter Index
    Skitter Index
    Objects, paint, drawing. 2015.
  • Skitter Index
    Skitter Index
    Detail view
  • Skitter Index (detail)
    Skitter Index (detail)
    Objects, paint, drawing. Detail view.
  • C.S.M.
    C.S.M.
    Wood molding fragment, paint, graphite, wall painting. 2015. This is a stand-alone piece embedded in the Skitter Index installation.
  • Nesting Studies #3 (corner, alarm)
    Nesting Studies #3 (corner, alarm)
    Wood, cable, tape, fabric, nails, paint. 2015.
  • Nesting Studies (#6)
    Nesting Studies (#6)
    Paint, modified wire cage. Installed in doorway of gallery fire exit.
  • Nesting Studies #2
    Nesting Studies #2
    Drawing fragments, wood, wall painting, various other materials. 2015.
  • Funny Once
    Funny Once
    Cardboard from clementine box w/plastic mesh remnant, wall drawing 2014
  • Custom Climate
    Custom Climate
    Objects, paint, drawing 2014

Indoor Verbs

Indoor Verbs is a gathering of objects and wall drawings, originally created for the 2013 Sondheim Semi-Finalist Exhibition. While certain individual components were prepared ahead of time, the installation as a whole was improvised over a two-day installation period using modified construction materials, furniture fragments, and drawings from my studio. A few elements foraged from the exhibition space also found their way into the finished work.

  • Indoor Verbs
    Indoor Verbs
  • Indoor Verbs
    Indoor Verbs
  • Indoor Verbs
    Indoor Verbs
  • Indoor Verbs
    Indoor Verbs
  • Indoor Verbs
    Indoor Verbs
  • Indoor Verbs
    Indoor Verbs
  • Indoor Verbs
    Indoor Verbs
  • Indoor Verbs
    Indoor Verbs

Works on Paper II

Selections from an ongoing body of small drawings and paintings on paper.
  • SP22.jpg
    SP22.jpg
    watercolor on paper
  • untitled
    untitled
    gouache on paper
  • untitled
    untitled
    gouache on paper
  • untitled
    untitled
    gouache on paper
  • untitled
    untitled
    ink and gouache on paper
  • untitled
    untitled
    watercolor on paper
  • untitled
    untitled
    ink marker, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper
  • untitled
    untitled
    gouache on paper
  • untitled
    untitled
    gouache, graphite, and ink marker on paper 11 in. x 8 in.
  • untitled
    untitled
    Gouache, pen, and ink on paper

Sculpture/Installation 2010-2011

Earlier installation and sculpture. This body of work marks the beginning of my exploration of  architectural space using strategies adapted from my painting practice. Most of the work pictured here was created for my MFA thesis exhibition at the University of Connecticut.
  • It Is What It Sounds Like
    It Is What It Sounds Like
    Watercolor on paper, laminate, nails, clothespins, fabric
  • Against Weather
    Against Weather
    Lumber, fabric, paint, rope, studio detritus, 2011. This installation is something between an (anti-functional) improvised shelter and a collaged spatial drawing. Like much of my 3-D work, Against Weather's unstable and provisional appearance is a consequence of its site-responsive development. [*note: This piece is entirely distinct from my 2016 project also titled Against Weather, although it is an important precursor. Sort of like a great-uncle who happens to have the exact same name.]
  • Against Weather (detail)
    Against Weather (detail)
    Lumber, fabric, paint, rope, studio detritus
    2011 Detail view
  • No Argument
    No Argument
    Wood, fake fur, canvas
  • You'll do
    You'll do
    Wood, paint, yarn
    2011
  • BR
    BR
    Lumber, paint, found furniture element
  • Med. Joy
    Med. Joy
    Painted plywood, homasote, tape, insulation foam, furniture fragment, carpet
  • Med. Joy
    Med. Joy
    Painted plywood, homasote, tape, insulation foam, furniture fragment, carpet
  • Caller
    Caller
    Wood, paint, wall drawing
    2011
  • Caller
    Caller
    Wood, paint, wall drawing
    detail view
    2011