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May 22 - June 24, 2009

Ben Clarkson
The Goal

Opening Reception:
Friday, May 22, 2009, 7:30pm - 10:00pm



Ben Clarkson
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Website: http://thebenclarkson.com/
E-mail: ben.clarkson[at]gmail.com



Press

Winnipeg Free Press by Stacey Abramson (2009/06/18)



Artist Statement

The Goal is a single work, or several pieces of work, which stem from my recent obsession with the story of Don Giovanni and Soren Kierkegaard's salient essay on the subject from his book Either/Or. The series exists as aphorisms, like cells in a battery; a synecdoche.

The drawings are absurd and pataphysical, they are humorous and also sometimes deeply troubling. Statues that drag our anti-heroes to hell permeate squares where there is no landscape, no context, no consequence, only what is immediately perceived. The Goal exists as a record of an attempt to quantify the lifestyle of the amoral with no intention of judgement. I hope to have created a pictorial record of both myself, as an animal, and a concise study of the aesthetic sphere of existence.

My other drawings act as aphorisms as well, without a perceived theme. Whether they be the humorous images of deer as humans, or small episodes of Franz Kafka as an unlikely forest ranger, these drawings draw on our ability to create a narrative or to ignore the absurdity of them.



C.V.

Education
2004 - 2008: B.F.A., Honours major in Drawing, University
   of Manitoba

Affiliations
Submissions Club, Art Collective. Founding Member: 
   January 2008 - Present

Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
July 2008 "All things in common" The Next Thought Gallery, 
   Winnipeg MB
May 2008 "Creating Cartesian Conundrums" Gallery of Student 
   Art, Winnipeg MB
Feb 2008  "White to play and win..." Starving Artist Gallery, 
   Winnipeg MB

Selected Group Exhibitions
Aug 2008  "Iodine" The Edge Gallery, Winnipeg MB                 
June 2008 "Dy'Nasty" Private Art Function, Winnipeg MB               
April 2008 "PDF" Ace Art inc., Winnipeg MB 
April 2008 "Fine Art Thesis Show" Gallery 111, Winnipeg MB

Awards and Grants
May 2009 Manitoba Arts Council Visual C Grant
Selected images from the exhibition

Charlene Had Always Been the Pretty One
Graphite on paper
12" x 12"
2009

Philip K Dick Meets the Centaur
Pen and ink on paper
12" x 22"
2009

The Goal
Graphite on paper
8" x 8"
2009

The Goal
Graphite on paper
8" x 8"
2009

The Goal
Graphite on paper
8" x 8"
2009

The Goal
Graphite on paper
8" x 8"
2009

The Goal
Graphite on paper
8" x 8"
2009

The Goal
Graphite on paper
8" x 8"
2009

The Goal
Graphite on paper
8" x 8"
2009

Untitled (Deer Playing Basketball)
Acrylic on paper
22" x 22"
2009

Untitled (Deer Watch Porn at Work)
Graphite on paper
22" x 22"
2009