About Ben
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
Painting 2016-2019
Selection from a body of work that began in 2014, when I resumed painting after several years of working almost exclusively in sculptural installation.
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More Animal
Oil on wood panel, 10 in. x 10 in.
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your ancient see through waysoil on panel, 10 in. x 10 in.
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I'm here for the interview
oil on panel, 12 in. x 12 in.
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Something has inflated meoil on panel, 10 in. x 10 in.
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Mouthfeeloil on panel, 10 in. x 10 in.
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Our New SingerOil on panel, 10 in. x 8 in.
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MonopodOil on panel. 12 in. x 12 in.
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Blinks
Oil on panel, 10 in. x 8 in.
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singing what it practiced its whole life
Oil on panel, 16 in. x 16 in., 2015
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First Proof
Oil on canvas, 20 in. x 16 in.
Paintings 2014-2016
Paintings completed 2014-2016.
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Blinks
Oil on panel, 10 in. x 8 in.
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First Proof
Oil on canvas, 20 in. x 16 in.
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Dilemma Rodeooil on panel, 10 in. x 10 in.
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singing what it practiced its whole life
Oil on panel, 16 in. x 16 in., 2015
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Hodaoil on canvas, 10 in. x 10 in.
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Mind of Winteroil on panel, 18 in. x 18 in.
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Pink's Fineoil on panel, 10 in. x 10 in.
Sculpture/ Installation, 2017 (2)
Room made of taken away (nesting studies) is an installation that was made for Birdland and the Anthropocene, a group exhibition organized around the theme of extinction at the Peale Center in Baltimore, curated by Lynne Parks.
This installation expands on my previous "Nesting Studies" (represented below). For this ongoing body of work, I frame my intuitive and playful process in the context of the survival strategies of migrating bird populations as they contend with, and adapt to, climate change and inhospitable urban environments.
(Title borrowed from "God of Rooms" by Jean Valentine)
The second work represented here is that giant urge to hover, an installation completed for the 2017 Trawick Prize exhibition.
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room made of taken-away (nesting studies)
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room made of taken-away (nesting studies)
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room made of taken-away (nesting studies)
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room made of taken-away (nesting studies)
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room made of taken-away (nesting studies)
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that giant urge to hover
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that giant urge to hover
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that giant urge to hover
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that giant urge to hover
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that giant urge to hover
Sculpture/Installation, 2017 (1)
This project highlights work I made at the Vermont Studio Center residency in November 2017. Within the space of this studio, I completed two site-responsive pieces (no trap/no treasure and Agnes Gin Nap) alongside a series of paintings and works on paper.
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no trap/no treasureDetail view. Tinted cast hydrocal with embedded copper piece, graphite drawing, floor painting. 2017.
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no trap/no treasureInstallation with salvaged wood and metal, cast hydrocal objects,drawings,on-site painting. Vermont Studio Center, 2017.
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no trap/no treasureDetail view. Wood, drawing, thread, paint.
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no trap/no treasureDetail view. Drawing impaled on metal-tipped wood dowel inserted into pillar. 2017.
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no trap/no treasurePartial view of installation, with salvaged wood and metal, cast hydrocal objects,drawings,on-site painting.
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no trap/no treasureDetail view. Tinted hydrocal with embedded steel, drawing fragments, floor painting.
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no trap/no treasureAlternate installation view. The character of this installation changed depending on the viewer's position and perception of relative scale. In this image it nearly dissolves into a delicatel spatial drawing, while from other perspectives it becomes more animated, populated by more assertive sculptural statements and applied color.
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Agnes Gin NapTinted hydrocal object with nail, inked packing envelope fragment, black palm cuttings, two small drawings, painting on panel, window. 2017.
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Agnes Gin Nap (detail)Detail view of Agnes Gin Nap installation. Tinted hydrocal object with nail, inked packing envelope fragment, black palm cuttings, two small drawings, painting on panel, window. 2017.
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installation view of paintings completed at Vermont Studio CenterArrangement of paintings and drawings that were made and shown in the same space as "no trap/no treasure" and "Agnes Gin Nap" installations.
Paper Works
I'm continually generating small works on paper as I move between painting and installation projects. My 2019 solo exhibition, soft obstacle, was originally conceived as a way to stage these works in a way that reflected my experience of them in the studio: less as autonomous visual statements, more as fugitive things that flicker between image and materiality, whose meaning and function shift through accretion and interrelation.
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untitled (soft obstacle series)
Graphite and flashe on paper, cut paper with crayon, nails.
9 in. x 5 in. x .75 in.
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shelter in place
Reversed drawing with ink stain, metallic contact paper, mismatched nails. 4.5 in. x 3.5 in. x .75 in. (composite view)
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untitled (soft obstacle series)
Gouache and graphite wash on paper, 2018. 5.5 in x 4.25 in.
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untitled (soft obstacle series)
Gouache on colored paper, 2018. 4 in. x 5.5 in.
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untitled (soft obstacle series)
Graphite and gouache on cut paper, 2017. 6 in. x 5.5 in.
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untitled (soft obstacle series)
graphite, gouache, and colored pencil on shaped paper, 4 in. x 5 in.
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untitled (soft obstacle series)
Graphite and paint on cut/shaped paper, 2018. 6.75 in. x 5.75 in.
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untitled (soft obstacle series)
Gouache on paper, 2018. 4 in. x 3 in.
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untitled (soft obstacle series)
Gouache on shaped paper, 2018. 4 in. x 3 in.
Against Weather (2016)
Total dimensions of installation: 10 ft. (h) x 13 ft. (w) x 16 ft. (h)
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Against WeatherPartial 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.
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Against Weather
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Against Weather
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Against Weather
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Against Weather
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Against Weather
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Against Weather
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Against Weather
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Dear LightningSofa leg, paint, custom shelf. 2016. Standalone piece embedded in the Against Weather installation.
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what silence won't sit stillSalvaged wood, drawing fragments, broken plastic tray, colored foil. 2016. Standalone piece embedded in Against Weather installation.
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.
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CountertenorSite-specific wall painting with line drawing, painted wood blocks, fabric, tape. 16 in. x 16 in. x 4 in.
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Skitter IndexObjects, paint, drawing. 2015.
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Skitter IndexDetail view
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Skitter Index (detail)Objects, paint, drawing. Detail view.
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C.S.M.Wood molding fragment, paint, graphite, wall painting. 2015. This is a stand-alone piece embedded in the Skitter Index installation.
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Nesting Studies #3 (corner, alarm)Wood, cable, tape, fabric, nails, paint. 2015.
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Nesting Studies (#6)Paint, modified wire cage. Installed in doorway of gallery fire exit.
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Nesting Studies #2Drawing fragments, wood, wall painting, various other materials. 2015.
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Funny OnceCardboard from clementine box w/plastic mesh remnant, wall drawing 2014
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Custom ClimateObjects, 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.
Sculpture/Installation 2010-2011
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It Is What It Sounds LikeWatercolor on paper, laminate, nails, clothespins, fabric
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Against WeatherLumber, 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.]
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Against Weather (detail)Lumber, fabric, paint, rope, studio detritus
2011 Detail view -
No ArgumentWood, fake fur, canvas
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You'll doWood, paint, yarn
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BRLumber, paint, found furniture element
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Med. JoyPainted plywood, homasote, tape, insulation foam, furniture fragment, carpet
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Med. JoyPainted plywood, homasote, tape, insulation foam, furniture fragment, carpet
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CallerWood, paint, wall drawing
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CallerWood, paint, wall drawing
detail view
2011