benjamin beker

Went on a little East London art adventure this weekend. Stopped by Flowers East on Kingsland Road (among other places) to check out the exhibition of a chap called Benjamin Beker. I've never heard of him or seen any of his work before, which is rather surprising as he completed an MA from the RCA in 2008.

He has three current series of works: blocks, war and liberation monuments, and interiors of power. Sadly, only blocks is on show at Flowers, but I picked up his catalogue (or you can check out the work on his site) and the others look great too. 

I love the separation of image from context. Just the monuments or selected parts of the high rise blocks. It gives a sculptural quality to the images and renders both the object and the finished photograph quite striking. 

The work looks great in the gallery, but then I saw this photo on Beker's website and there's something about the nature and the quality of his work that just looks incredible against the backdrop of this car park/warehouse/industrial something. Sometimes I wonder why people bother showing work in galleries at all, but I suppose that's an issue for another post. I only wish I'd come across his work before as I think it would have been amazing to hang in the Regent Street venue. Having said that, I'm thinking of asking him to be part of my summer show. Watch this space.

(all images from benjaminbeker.com/)