Ben Schwab is one of those artists whose process, style and subject matter reflect the conceptual musings that drive his work.
His fragmented cityscapes are visual constructions of his preoccupation with the relationship between “here and there,” with place and perspective, and the cumulative nature of time, whether relating to architecture or the marks he uses to “build” his paintings.
Schwab finds cities both visually and conceptually compelling, and uniquely suited to exploring the ideas that are of particular interest to him.
Counterbalance, oil on canvas, 48 x 36"
“The visual component relates to the conceptional,” says Schwab. “I think of cities as a metaphor for how we engage with the world—building, constructing, evolving and changing over time. The city reflects that. It’s a lot about that visual metaphor and building a space within the canvas that’s related to the construction of a city. I’m trying to marry those things together and connect it to that element of time and space.”
His work, often composites of multiple locations or a single location affording multiple perspectives, explores the tension between the abstract and the representational. He also experiments with the dynamic relationship between the foreground and background, with the two often in a vibrational contest for prominence. Up close, his skylines fracture into geometric shapes of color. Stepping back, they coalesce into something familiar, if not specific.
Parallel Series 34, gouache on paper, 24 x 22"
“I’m really thinking spatially,” says Schwab. “The representational and the abstract all sort of adhere together. Sometimes I take it too far in one direction but I’ll push that. How abstract can I get while still keeping the representational elements and vice versa? It gives me the flexibility to be really open…I think about things representationally in a sense but I’m approaching it from abstraction. At the same time, it’s still of this world. I like to be able to play around with that idea.”
Crossing Paths, oil on canvas, 36 x 48"
Schwab’s paintings—many of them spanning 4-feet—are more broadly relevant in the context of the multitude of virtual realities that define contemporary culture. His merging of several places and viewpoints on a single canvas speaks to how we can be in one place while thinking about another, and, more literally, how technology allows us to exist in many “spaces” at once. Again, it touches upon the idea of visual accumulation and its potential to overwhelm.
Illumination, oil on canvas 36 x 40"
“It is something I continuously think about and explore, especially that feeling of fragmentation, accumulation and the disorientation I think is deeply felt in our present state in so many ways,” says Schwab. “It probably sounds cliché, but when I’m making the work it really is meditative…building on this one little mark over time…It allows me to slow down and construct. I don’t think of cities as visually overwhelming but they can be. So can history when I think about how I’m just one little cog in this vast [timeline]. When I focus on one little mark, it’s like I am that one little mark, we all are, building and accumulating over the span of our lives. I find it very centering to be able to build these paintings, look at them overall and see how things come together. To be able to make those statements is very meaningful.”
A selection of Schwab’s new oil and gouache paintings are on view through October 13 in a solo exhibition titled Here and There at George Billis Gallery in New York. —
George Billis Gallery 527 W. 23rd Street • New York, NY 10011 • (917) 273-8621 • www.georgebillis.com
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