Benjamin Pritchard | Nature Worship: Detroit

David Klein Gallery is pleased to present BENJAMIN PRITCHARD, Nature Worship, featuring Pritchard’s recent paintings and work on paper.  An opening reception for the artist will be held on Saturday, March 23rd, 5– 8 PM at David Klein Gallery, Detroit.

 

Pritchard has spent the last few years working in both his Brooklyn studio and in a rustic shed at his family’s Michigan home. It is his natural surroundings at home that have exerted the strongest influence on the work in Nature Worship. Pritchard’s process is instinctive, discovering the image through the paint itself, working in multiple layers of color and texture to find the balance and substance in each canvas. The work’s bold, almost wild, organic forms and saturated color are underpinned by his intimate knowledge of 20^th Century Abstraction and Expressionism.  Pritchard notes the influences of favorite artists, such as Al Held, Forrest  Bess, Albert Pinkham Ryder and Gustave Moreau whose work explores the boundaries between the nature and abstraction.

Pritchard takes the discord and unpredictability of life, both significant and mundane, and manages to derive pure aesthetic harmony. The paintings and drawings consolidate the tumult of the world and the psyche within. Instead of rejecting these invasive elements, they are joyfully embraced as a source of inspiration and beauty. The aesthetic radiance, powerful euphoric energy, and humanity of the artwork are achieved through accepting rawness and leaving intact the tangible internal and external struggle of creating the work.  Equity Gallery, New York, NY, 2021

 

After spending decades in urban areas I got deeply involved in observing the days and weather in Michigan, feeling the days move into the new season. The work began to proliferate and themes around observations of mortality and renewal, nature and repetition and change began to emerge.  I think of these paintings as landscapes, not as descriptive or impressionist inspired images, but inspired by my immersion in this specific place.  - Benjamin Pritchard March 2024

 

Benjamin Pritchard lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.  He also maintains a studio in the Detroit Metro area where he was raised.  Pritchard has exhibited in the U.S. and abroad including David Klein Gallery, Detroit, MI; Eric Firestone Gallery, New York NY and East Hampton, NY; M David & Co, Brooklyn, NY; John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY; Gallery Shoshinken, Nagano, Japan; and Koh Phangdon Arts Center, Thailand. In addition to his solo show at David Klein Gallery in March 2024 upcoming exhibitions will take place at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; and Billytown, The Hague, Belgium.  Pritchard has organized and curated group exhibitions including Cup o Sugar at Lorimoto Gallery, Ridgewood, NY, Paintings in Trees, People’s Garden, Brooklyn, NY; as well as numerous guerilla exhibitions in abandoned buildings in New York City and London, England.

 

Pritchard has a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from the Royal Academy of Arts, London.  Additional studies include the New York Studio School from 1994-1996.  Awards include the Joan Mitchell Foundation award for residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.