2D Mixed Media and Digital Art
Benjamin Frey
New to Spring 2025!
Buena Vista, VA
Booth 339
Featured Artist
A professional artist since 2003, I was born in Maine in 1979, grew up in an artistic family, and was serious about art at an early age. Along the way I’ve had several important mentors, including the contemporary landscape painter Alan Bray, the collage artist Roderick Slater and the conceptual art bookbinder Richard Minsky. At St John’s College (Annapolis) I majored in Classical Literature and Philosophy, where I also studied pottery under Ebby Malmgren, and explored lutherie and bookbinding. I left college to follow a longtime dream of living in France, before moving to New York, where I studied drawing under Michael Burbon at the Art Students League, and began my full time career as a visual artist. Besides Maine, Paris, and New York, I’ve had studios in Montreal, and Philadelphia and my current studio is in Virginia.
My work has won top awards at many juried competitions, and shown in galleries across America. It is included in numerous public and private collections around the world. In 2021, I created a public art mural for a small town in Virginia. I have been the featured artist at numerous art shows over the years, including 2023 at both the Coconut Grove Arts Festival (Miami) and the Stockley Gardens Arts Festival in Norfolk, Virginia. Most recently I received Best in Category awards at the Armonk Fine Arts Festival in New York (2023) and the Boca Raton Museum Fine Art Show (2024).
Here's an interview about my artistic process, and some of my journey as an artist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DdluL18kAg
I use many materials but emphasize drawing to convey movement, depth, and perspective. My work is representational, where the real world structures and objects act as an armature for my abstract use of color that invites the imagination and emotions to consider something beyond mere depiction.
I have always loved that drawing captures the essence of something, and I prefer bold lines and gestures to mere photorealism. I am inspired by expressive marks in ancient cave art, the movement in old master drawings, and the perspective and volume conveyed by architectural sketches. For decades I have worked with layered materials and collage techniques, but I want these materials to subtly emerge as my work is experienced. I include antique book pages, sheet music, stencils, and paint into my backgrounds to create a sensual surface, reminding the viewer that handmade artwork is a real object, as well as idea and image, and allowing the content of the materials and pages to enhance the story told by the drawing. I use watercolor pencils, graphite, inks, and pastels to draw, my lines blend with paints as I alternate between painting and drawing. These blurred boundaries add volume, and create a sense of movement. I like my subjects to highlight what may be overlooked in everyday life, playing with memory, movement, and energy and I seek to engage the viewer in a way that invites reflections on time, travels, and the vibrancy of life.