OHT Gallery Boston

Previous Exhibits

Paintings

Ben Snead

November 7 - 29, 2003
Reception: Friday, November 7, 5:30 - 7:30 pm

O·H+T gallery is pleased to present the paintings of Ben Snead. These large, spare works feature skillfully painted fish, frogs, bugs, and birds which are repeated to form overlapping geometric patterns. Obsessively orchestrated, Snead's arrangements bring to mind overhead views of Bugsby Berkley dancers or synchronized swimmers.

Snead has been interested in wildlife since his childhood in Colorado. Initially focusing on trout, Snead broadened his subject matter by referring to field guides, where he discovered the complexity and variety of the patterning exhibited by different species for various purposes (camouflage, mating device, warning to predators). Although it influences his work visually, in Snead's mind pattern is also a form of language asking to be decoded.

In a recent interview, when asked about the symmetry of his paintings, Snead recollected looking at an earlier, loosely configured work through a kaleidoscope. The transformation of the painting into a perfect symmetrical system clarified issues that he had been struggling with, such as the decontextualiztion of the object and the relationship between the natural and unnatural order. The intellectual nature of these issues and the crystalline clarity of his composition might suggest that Snead's paintings are cool and analytical. Instead, they vibrate with the vitality and contained energy of corralled creatures who are meant to swim, fly, and hop freely.

Ben Snead is a Brooklyn artist who has a MFA degree from Rhode Island School of Design, and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He shows his work at Feature Inc. in New York. His work is included in the Altoids Curiously Strong Collection which was exhibited at O·H+T gallery in March 2002. This is his first solo show at the gallery.