Aleph Contemporary for AccessArt

“My work comes about as an amalgamation of observation, memory, and imagination, it exists at the intersection of documentary and fiction - life presented as an illusion.” 

Ben Westley Clarke’s portraits and scenes of contemporary life have a carnivalesque joyfulness and expressive style. These are vivid and stylised depictions of ordinary places that are nevertheless full of life such as the renowned series of life in Irish pubs. The artist lives and works in Spain today but points to the influence of London “The city taught me to paint quickly, directly and with conviction, and to continually change and edit my work. Its spectacular facades and ugly underbelly- its social divisions, unsentimental pragmatism; the constant state of change have entered into both how and what I paint. London has perhaps developed my conviction that there is more value and interest in bearing witness truthfully than in painting pretty abstract pictures - the city has made me something more like a war photographer than a post-impressionist.” 

Using a mixture of oil paint, palette knives, brushes, sponges, rags and newspaper, markers and charcoal, Clarke tends to fill his entire picture plane with activity, objects and people. In some works, vertically composed scenes the foreground and background seem to veer into one another while other drawings and paintings appear as if windows into intimate scenes of people going about their daily lives, the ordinary made iconic. Whatever the subject matter, the viewer finds oneself immersed in a fragmented angular world full of dark shadow and caricature like figures, the cacophonic story familiar yet uncertain. 

Clarke holds his Postgraduate Diploma, The Royal Drawing School, London and his First Class Honours BA, Fine Art, The Slade School of Fine Art, London, in addition to completing an Exchange Program, Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, New York Studio School, New York, and a Foundation Diploma, Fine Art, Byam Shaw School of Art, Central St. Martins, London. Richard Ford Award to study at the Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain, September 2018. In October 2021 he started an MA at the Royal College of Art.

The artist is the recipient of various awards and honours including the Steer Prize for Outstanding Performance in Painting, 2014; Scholarship from New York Studio School to study with Graham Nickson at The Philharmonic Center for the Arts in Naples, Florida, October 2012; and the Melville-Nettleship Prize for Figure Composition, 2011-12. Clarke has also held residencies at New Fish Island, Caniezza, Veneto, Italy, 2018; The Pignano Painting Residency, Royal Drawing School, Tuscany, Italy, 2017; and Quinta da Fornalha, Algarve, Portugal, 2015.

Select solo exhibitions include:
Espacio Mademotion, Madrid, 2019,  Gallery, London, 2017; Ladette Space, London, 2015; William Gibbons Fine Art, Yorkshire, 2013. 

Select group shows:
Cave Pimlico, London, 2018; Churchgate Gallery, 2018; Turf Projects, London, 2018; Geddes Gallery, London, 2016; Cob Gallery, London, 2015; Leyden Gallery, London, 2015; Harts Lane Studios, London, 2015; Slade Degree Show Exhibition, London, 2014; Utrophia, London, 2011; House Gallery, London, 2011.