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.

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

Inquiries
Ochi
hello@ochigallery.com
Education
2013
BFA, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA

Solo Exhibitions
2024
FOG Design + Art Fair, Ochi, San Francisco, CA
2023
New Caps, Marta, Los Angeles, CA
Deep Time, Ochi, Los Angeles, CA
2022
    Post Existence Postcards, Ochi, Untitled, Miami Beach, FL
Strange Attractors, Left Field Gallery, Barely Fair, Chicago, IL
2021
Nine Bottle Caps and a Chimney, Ochi Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2020
Poppies, Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Bonsai, Ampersand Gallery, Portland, OR 
2019
Items, Left Field, Los Osos, CA
Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Ochi, Los Angeles, CA (with Adam Beris)
2018
I Come to the Garden Alone, Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2017
The Garden & The Church, Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA (Bathroom Installation)
2015
Foreign & Domestic, Carl & Sloan, Portland, OR
2014
Whiteface, LVL3 Gallery, Chicago, IL (with Stephen Collier)
Graves of Craving, Slow Culture Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Group Exhibitions
2024
Tone Poem, The Hole, Los Angeles, CA
Rites of Spring, Marta, Los Angeles, CA
2023
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, Online
2022
To Bough and To Bend, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA
2021
Expanded Field, Ochi Aux, Los Angeles, CA
2020
Second Smile, The Hole, New York, NY
To Bough and To Bend, Bridge Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Big Pictures, Los Angeles, CA
2019
Holding Space, Big Pictures, Los Angeles, CA
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)
2018
Culinaria, Disjecta, Portland, OR
Soft Pretzel, Vacation, New York, NY
LOVE 2018: Purple Hearts (curated by Rachel Stern), Columbia University LeRoy Neiman Gallery, New York, NY
2017
DBA, Big Pictures, Los Angeles, CA, CA
Taco Shop Art Show, Rosarito Mexican Food Restaurant, Pasadena, CA
2016
The Thing Itself, Coop Gallery, Nashville, TN
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
2015
RV, TSA LA, Los Angeles, CA
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
2014
Something Within, DAC Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
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
2012
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, CA
2022
Food & Beverage Program, Marta, Los Angeles, CA (2019 – 2022)
JDI Day Environmental Murals, Nike World HQ, Beaverton, OR
2021
YMCA Basketball Court Renovation, Crenshaw, CA
2020
Nike LAHQ Murals, Playa Vista, CA
Figueroa Sunset Environemntal Mural, Private Collection, San Marino, CA
2019
Louis Vuitton X Exhibition Murals, Beverly Hills, CA
2018
Bar commission for Culinaria, Disjecta, Portland, OR
Brickell City Centre Murals, Miami, FL
Mural, Cerveceria Insurgente, Tijuana, MX
Dropbox Live Mural, SXSW, Austin, TX
2017
Chateau Le Sploosh (Happy Hour Agency)
21, Group Exhibition, Left Field Gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA (Curatorial)
Taco Biennale, Rosarito Mexican Food Restaurant, Pasadena, CA (Curatorial)
2016
Rm. 227 (Happy Hour Agency)
The Grid Bar (Happy Hour Agency)
2015
Hypertube (Happy Hour Agency)
Gordon’s Garden (Happy Hour Agency)
2014
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, CA
2020
Fellows of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
2014
The Art Gym at Marylhurst University, Portland, OR
Clark College, Vancouver, WA
Pratt Institute, New York, NY

Teaching
2013–2017
Printmaking  Studio Assistant, Art Center College of Design
2013–2014
ECF Art Centers