b. 1989, Los Angeles, 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, Ace Hotels, Bloomberg, Dropbox, Facebook, and The New York Times.
In addition to his studio practice, he is a professor in the Illustration Department at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
Every interest or activity shapes his artistic practice and contributes to an ever-expanding umbrella of aesthetic value. Gardening, cooking, collecting, painting, building, parenting, bartending—arguably, any action executed with intention may be performance and/or is art. 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.
Known for his pop-up art bars and context-responsive cocktails for art world events, Sanders was a founding member of the Los Angeles-based Happy Hour Agency (HHA), a group that developed sensory experiences involving food, drinks, design, and performance. Collectively analyzing each fundamental element during the planning of HHA events, the group worked for months in studios and test kitchens to realize each element of an event. This intentionality and precision carries into Sanders’ solo projects—the result of lifelong interests, ongoing experimental practices, an autodidactic drive, and the intellectual charisma that holds it all in place.
Written by Meghan Gordon
Contact
contact@bensandersstudio.com
Social Media
Instagram
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, Ace Hotels, Bloomberg, Dropbox, Facebook, and The New York Times.
In addition to his studio practice, he is a professor in the Illustration Department at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
Every interest or activity shapes his artistic practice and contributes to an ever-expanding umbrella of aesthetic value. Gardening, cooking, collecting, painting, building, parenting, bartending—arguably, any action executed with intention may be performance and/or is art. 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.
Known for his pop-up art bars and context-responsive cocktails for art world events, Sanders was a founding member of the Los Angeles-based Happy Hour Agency (HHA), a group that developed sensory experiences involving food, drinks, design, and performance. Collectively analyzing each fundamental element during the planning of HHA events, the group worked for months in studios and test kitchens to realize each element of an event. This intentionality and precision carries into Sanders’ solo projects—the result of lifelong interests, ongoing experimental practices, an autodidactic drive, and the intellectual charisma that holds it all in place.
Written by Meghan Gordon
Contact
contact@bensandersstudio.com
Social Media
Solo Exhibitions
2024
Post Existence Postcards, Ochi, Untitled, Miami Beach, FL
Group Exhibitions
2024
Projects
2024
Visiting Artist Lectures & Workshops
2024
Teaching
2024–Present
Education
2013
2024
FOG Design + Art Fair, Ochi, San Francisco, CA2023
New Caps, Marta, Los Angeles, CA
Deep Time, Ochi, 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
2024
How the Trees See the Stars, Gana Art LA, Los Angeles, CA
Walking Distance, Bozomag, Los Angeles, CA
Tone Poem, The Hole, Los Angeles, CA
Rites of Spring, Marta, Los Angeles, CA2023
Art 021 Shanghai, Asia Art Center, Shanghai, China
On the Voyage, Asia Art Center, Beijing, China
Dallas Art Fair, Ochi, Dallas, TX
Spring, Primary Projects, Miami, FL
April Selection, Platform, Online2022
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
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
2024
Ace Hotel Bus Mural, Palm Springs, CA2022
Food & Beverage Program, Marta, Los Angeles, CA (2019 – 2022)
JDI Day Environmental Murals, Nike World HQ, Beaverton, OR2021
YMCA Basketball Court Renovation, Crenshaw, CA2020
Nike LAHQ Murals, Playa Vista, CA2019
Figueroa Sunset Environemntal Mural, Private Collection, San Marino, CA
Louis Vuitton X Exhibition Murals, Beverly Hills, CA2018
Bar 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)
Visiting Artist Lectures & Workshops
2024
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA (2015 – present)
Tierra Del Sol, Sunland, CA2020
Fellows of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA2014
The Art Gym at Marylhurst University, Portland, OR
Clark College, Vancouver, WA
Pratt Institute, New York, NY
Teaching
2024–Present
Assistant Professor, Ilustration, Art Center College of Design2013–2017
Printmaking Studio Assistant, Art Center College of Design2013–2014
ECF Art Centers
Education
2013
BFA, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA