Gallery Address:
119 N Peoria St, Suite 2A
Chicago, IL 60607 USA
312.480.8390
Gallery hours:
Wednesdays - Saturdays
11am to 6pm
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BEN STONE
Ben Stone transforms two-dimensional images from American popular culture into bizarre three-dimensional sculptures. Past bodies of work include relief busts of 1980s nail salon beauties based on the style of Patrick Nagel; a three-dimensional rendering of a giant octopus playing the bagpipes; and a bust and a life-sized, legless Mary Lou Retton with her arms upheld triumphantly. He takes his often hilarious and colorful pop sensibilities into dark places, using familiar imagery to investigate conventions of beauty, morals and ethics in contemporary society, high and low sources of art and culture as well as personal psychological dramas addressing Stone’s self-worth as an artist.
“Ben Stone flirted with ideas of colonialism in Guided Missile, a movable sculpture made out of his car. Parked adjacent to the lot, the grey auto seemed like a naval base stationed in the middle of the neighborhood. Attached on top the ceiling of the car was a battleship, attached to the ship was a balloon and attached to the balloon, way up high in the air, was a war plane. Both war machines, the boat and the plane, were made out of painted cardboard and tape. Although playful, Stone's models were a reminder, that even in summer, things are always tense in wartime.”
-- Pedro Velez, artnet.com“The show is notable for what Darmody calls its "optimistic and flawed" nature. That is, all of the works are advancements into the world, attempts at making it a better, more understandable place, but, like Ben Stone's Uncle Sam Bong, are just too fucking weird to work.”
-- Karl Erickson, artnet.comBen Stone’s handcrfted pop sculptures and video work have been shown in solo exhibitions at Suitable in Chicago and Ten-in-One, in both New York and Chicago, and in group exhibitions at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, Gavin Brown and 16 Beaver in New York, DiverseWorks in Houston, Fahrenheit gallery in Kansas City, the Bower in San Antonio and in Chicago at the Van Harrison Gallery, Gallery 400 and the Terra Museum of Art. Western Exhibitions included his work in “5 Solo Shows” the gallery’s fall season opener in 2005. That summer Stone’s Nuptron 4000, a seven-foot tall, 250 pound robot who performed Stone’s wedding ceremony in 2004, was shown at the Hyde Park Art Center. Nuptron 4000 was featured on several Chicago television new programs and written about in Time Out Chicago and Red Eye. His work has also been discussed in the New Art Examiner, artnet.com, Bridge Magazine, Dialogue, Ten by Ten and New City. Stone received his MFA from the University of Illinois-Chicago and his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI. He maintains a studio in Chicago and lives in Berwyn, Illinois.
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