Information
b. 1989 Arcadia, CA
Ben Sanders is a multi-disciplinary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally, as well as commissioned by clients all over the world, including Nike, Louis Vuitton, SSENSE, and The New York Times.
Raised in a Southern California environment that celebrated art in service of a story, mood, or feeling, Sanders spent much of his childhood in his dad’s workshop where Hollywood sets were designed and fabricated. Sanders’ bodies of work include paintings of food, drinks, logos and other found design imagery, bonsai, gardens, and post-human landscapes—all of which may be painted on terra cotta planting pots, enlarged metal bottle caps, gallery stationary, and on more traditional supports like canvas and wood panel.
For Sanders, practices of gardening and cooking hold as much value as a process-rich, finely rendered painting. Complementing his studio work is an enthusiastic, open-ended list of activities, materials and processes, inspired by the domestic and the designed.
Whether facilitating highly curated social experiences involving food and beverages, or working with members of diverse, non-art communities, Sanders welcomes the influence of the everyday as a path towards meaning.
b. 1989 Arcadia, CA
Ben Sanders is a multi-disciplinary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally, as well as commissioned by clients all over the world, including Nike, Louis Vuitton, SSENSE, and The New York Times.
Raised in a Southern California environment that celebrated art in service of a story, mood, or feeling, Sanders spent much of his childhood in his dad’s workshop where Hollywood sets were designed and fabricated. Sanders’ bodies of work include paintings of food, drinks, logos and other found design imagery, bonsai, gardens, and post-human landscapes—all of which may be painted on terra cotta planting pots, enlarged metal bottle caps, gallery stationary, and on more traditional supports like canvas and wood panel.
For Sanders, practices of gardening and cooking hold as much value as a process-rich, finely rendered painting. Complementing his studio work is an enthusiastic, open-ended list of activities, materials and processes, inspired by the domestic and the designed.
Whether facilitating highly curated social experiences involving food and beverages, or working with members of diverse, non-art communities, Sanders welcomes the influence of the everyday as a path towards meaning.
Solo Exhibitions
2023
Post Existence Postcards, Ochi, Untitled, Miami Beach, FL
Group Exhibitions
2022
Projects
2022
Talks
2023
Forthcoming Solo Exhibition, Marta, Los Angeles, CA (June)
Deep Time, Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA2022
Post Existence Postcards, Ochi, Untitled, Miami Beach, FL
Strange Attractors, Left Field Gallery, Barely Fair, Chicago, IL2021
Nine Bottle Caps and a Chimney, Ochi Gallery, Ketchum, ID2020
Poppies, Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA2019
Bonsai, Ampersand Gallery, Portland, OR
Items, Left Field, Los Osos, CA2018
Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Ochi, Los Angeles, CA (with Adam Beris)
I Come to the Garden Alone, Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA2017
The Garden & The Church, Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA (Bathroom Installation)2015
Foreign & Domestic, Carl & Sloan, Portland, OR2014
Whiteface, LVL3 Gallery, Chicago, IL (with Stephen Collier)
Graves of Craving, Slow Culture Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Group Exhibitions
2022
To Bough and To Bend, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA2021
Expanded Field, Ochi Aux, Los Angeles, CA2020
Second Smile, The Hole, New York, NY2019
To Bough and To Bend, Bridge Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Big Pictures, Los Angeles, CA
Holding Space, Big Pictures, Los Angeles, CA2018
House Museum, curated by Alex Reed, Los Angeles, CA
I Wake Up and Write Down My Dreams, No Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (Organized by Big Pictures, Los Angeles)
I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library, Blake and Vargas, Berlin, Germany (Organized by Big Pictures, Los Angeles)
Culinaria, Disjecta, Portland, OR2017
Soft Pretzel, Vacation, New York, NY (Organized by Ochi Projects)
LOVE 2018: Purple Hearts (curated by Rachel Stern), Columbia University LeRoy Neiman Gallery, New York, NY
DBA, Big Pictures, Los Angeles, CA, CA2016
Taco Shop Art Show, Rosarito Mexican Food Restaurant, Pasadena, CA
The Thing Itself, Coop Gallery, Nashville, TN2015
Elysian Redux, Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York, NY
Pink & Green, Eddy's Room, New York, NY
Slippery Slope, Left Field Gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA
RV, TSA LA, Los Angeles, CA2014
Making an Entrance, Robert Blumenthal Gallery, New York, NY (curated by LVL3, Chicago)
Tan Lines 3, Solid State, Chicago, IL
FIVE, LVL3 Gallery, Chicago, IL
Something Within, DAC Gallery, Los Angeles, CA2012
Rendering, Good Work Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Paraprosdokians and Rubber Chickens, The Art Gym, Portland, OR
A La Mode: Painted Method, L'Art Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Opera Buffa, FIELD Contemporary, Vancouver, BC
High Math, Slow Culture Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Post-it Show 8, Giant Robot 2, Los Angeles, CA
Back 2 Basix, Art and Crafts Collective, Los Angeles, CA
Gold, Silver, and Bronze, Kemistry Gallery, London, UK
Projects
2022
Beverage Program, Marta, Los Angeles, CA (Since 2019)2021
YMCA Basketball Court, Crenshaw, CA2020
Nike LAHQ Murals, Playa Vista, CA2019
Figueroa Sunset, Private Collection, San Marino, CA
Louis Vuitton X Exhibition Murals, Beverly Hills, CA2018
Bar Work Commission for Culinaria, Disjecta, Portland, OR2017
Brickell City Centre Murals, Miami, FL
Mural, Cerveceria Insurgente, Tijuana, MX
Dropbox Live Mural, SXSW, Austin, TX
Chateau Le Sploosh (Happy Hour Agency)
21, Group Exhibition, Left Field Gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA (curatorial)2016
Taco Biennale, Rosarito Mexican Food Restaurant, Pasadena, CA (curatorial)
Rm. 227 (Happy Hour Agency)2015
The Grid Bar (Happy Hour Agency)
Hypertube (Happy Hour Agency)2014
Gordon’s Garden (Happy Hour Agency)
The Cozy Castle (Happy Hour Agency)
Chilligan’s Island (Happy Hour Agency)
Talks
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, September 2015 – present
Fellows of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, January 2020
The Art Gym at Marylhurst University, Portland, OR, November 2014
Clark College, Vancouver, WA, November 2014
Pratt Institute, New York, NY, March 2014