Benjamin Degen
Benjamin Degen (born 1976 in Brooklyn, NY) is an American painter who is based out of New York City, NY.
Early Life and Education
Degen received his Bachelors in Fine Arts from The Cooper Union School of Art and Science in 1998. In 1997, Degen participated in the Yale Norfolk Painting Fellowship, a summer program at Yale for rising undergraduate seniors in the fine arts
Career and work
Degen has exhibited work internationally in solo and group shows in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Zurich, and Singapore. Reviews have appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, the New York Times, the New Yorker, the New York Observer, Modern Painters, and Huffington Post among others. Degen is represented by Susan Inglett Gallery in New York City.
Degen finds inspiration in classical painting, nature and the figure. In a review of his exhibition “Shadow, Ripple, Reflection” 2013, Will Heinrich of The New York Observer describes the textural quality of Degen’s paint application. “Mr. Degen lays down paint like sculpture, multiplying little ridges into patterns that carry as much formal weight as their rich, sartorial colors. The leaves of grass poking this ocean gazer’s ankles are like plastic lanyards, a section of her dress seen against the sky is a stickiness as intricate as natto, and even the beer bottle is a psychedelic network of dashes.”
Personal
Degen is married to the artist Hope Gangloff. He is the son of the children's book author and illustrator Bruce Degen and artist/gardener Christine Degen. Benjamin's brother is the comic book artist Alex Degen.
Solo exhibitions
- 2015 "Where We Live" Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC
- 2013 “Shadow, Ripple, and Reflection”, Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC
- 2010 “Out of the dark, into the air”, Museum 52, NYC
- 2008 “We Can’t Stop Living”, Guild & Greyshkul, NYC
- 2007 “Brick Layer”, Mario Diacono, Boston, MA
- 2007 “Medium”, St. Barthelemy, French West Indies
- 2006 “A Tree is Falling”, Kantor/Feuer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
- 2004 “Land Lives and Still Scapes”, Guild & Greyshkul, NYC
Group exhibitions
- 2016 "Stark Imagery: The Male Nude in Art” The William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, CT
- 2015 “Color Against Color,” curated by Eric Hibit, O.Y.G., Brooklyn, NY
- 2015 “The Guston Effect,” Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA
- 2015 “Night Flights,” Curated by Norm Paris and Jackie Hoving, TSA New York, Brooklyn, NY
- 2014 “Brooklyn Art Party,” Nelson Macker Fine Art, Port Chester, NY
- 2014 “Diamonds and Donuts,” Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
- 2014 “art + crush: Xinyi Cheng – Benjamin Degen, Louis Fratino – David Humphrey”, Platform Gallery, Baltimore, MD
- 2014 “Disaster!”, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
- 2013 “Amor Fati”, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY
- 2013 “Bathers”, Morgan Lehman Gallery, NYC
- 2013 "The Goddess", Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
- 2012 “Grand Prix”, Gresham’s Ghost/Nudashank Gallery, Baltimore MD
- 2012 “Painting as a Radical Form”, Collezione Mamarotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy
- 2012 “Graphomania”, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
- 2012 “Night X”, Benjamin Degen and Yuri Mansnyj, American Contemporary, NYC
- 2012 “Brucennial” Bruce High Quality Foundation, NYC
- 2011 “From Where You Just Arrived” Curated by Ryan Schneider, Pepin Moore Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
- 2011 “Drawing Crazy Patterns on the Sheets”, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
- 2011 “Thisorganized” Curated by Hope Gangloff, Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC
- 2011 “LANY” Curated by Marc Diacono, Peter Blum Gallery, NYC
- 2010 “Reclining Nudes”, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington MA
- 2010 “With Walls”, Museum 52, NYC
- 2010 “Natural Renditions”, Marlborough Gallery, NYC
- 2009 “King”s County Biennial”, Kidd Yellin Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
- 2009 “Body Language”, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington MA
- 2009 “Cave Painting” Curated by Bob Nickas, Gresham’s Ghost Gallery, NYC
- 2009 “New Work New York”, Fortune Cookie Projects, Singapre
- 2009 “Beyond Bounds - Glow”, The Nerman Museum, Overland Park, KS
- 2009 “Pink Panther” Curated by Amy Smith-Stewart, Hannah Dumes, and Nicole O’Rourke, Kumukumu Gallery, NYC
- 2009 “The Ankle Bones are Higher on the Inside”, Museum 52 Gallery, NYC
- 2009 “Garish”, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
- 2009 “Variations on a Theme”, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago IL
- 2009 “Transitions, Painting at the (other) End of Art” Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy
- 2008 “Bob Nickas Collection, New York Recent Acquisitions, Gifts, and Works from Various Exhibitions 1985-2007”, White Columns, NYC
- 2008 “Three Landscapes (or more) in the Modern Style”, Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL
- 2007 “Painting as Fact, Fact as Fiction” Curated by Bob Nickas, DePury & Luxembourg, Zurich, Switzerland
- 2006 “Occupation”, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
- 2006 “View Eleven: Upstate” Curated by Amy Smith-Stewart, Mary Boone Gallery, NYC
- 2006 “Collection 2005/2006” Galerie Rondolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
- 2005 “Among the Trees”, The Visual Art Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ
- 2005 “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” with Yuri Masnyj, Guild & Greyshkul, NYC
- 2005 “Looking at Words”, Andrea Rosen Gallery, NYC
- 2005 “The General’s Jamboree”, Guild & Greyshkul, NYC
- 2005 “Bebe is Strange”, D’Amello Terras, NYC
- 2005 “Ultimate Concern”, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
- 2005 “Greater New York 2005”, P.S.1, Long Island City, NY
- 2004 “Colored Pencil”, KS Art, NYC
- 2004 Guild & Greyshkul at Placemaker Gallery, Miami, FL
- 2004 “My Sources Say Yes”, Guild & Greyshkul, NYC
- 2004 “The New Topography”, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington MA
Bibliography
- Indrisek, Scott, “Benjamin Degen”, MODERN PAINTERS, February 2013.
- Knudsen, Stephen, HUFFINGTON POST, 2 January 2014.[1]
- FOLIOLEAF, 2 January 2014.[2]
- CREEM MAGAZINE, 2013.[3]
- Beer, Jonathan, THE BROOKLYN RAIL, 18 December 2013.[4]
- Heinrich, Will, THE NEW YORK OBSERVER, 19 November 2013.[5]
- Schjeldahl, Peter, “Benjamin Degen”, THE NEW YORKER, 14 November 2013.
- Bilsborough, Michael, SVA Continuing Education Blog, 22 November 2013.
- Kerr, Merrily, NEW YORK ART TOURS, 19 November 2013.[6]
- Johnson, Paddy, ARTFAGCITY, 21 October 2013.[7]
- Diacono, Mario, Silvana Editoriale, Italy, 2012.[8]
- “New American Painting #98” Open Studio Press. Boston, 2012.
- Capelli, Pia, “Le Forme Radicali della pittura americana alla collecione Maramotti”, ARTE, 2012 p. 24-25.
- Staff, [Maramotti From the Radical Forms of Painting”, LASTAMPA.IT“Maramotti From the Radical Forms of Painting”], LASTAMPA.IT, 23 October 2012.
- Staff, “Photo Galleries”, ARTINFO, 30 July 2012.
- “Vitamin P2” Phaidon Press, 2011.
- Quinn, Bryony, IT'S NICE THAT, 5 December 2011.[9]
- Radujko, Gabriella, “Mythopoeic LANY Group Show at Peter Blum Gallery in Chelsea,” ARTCARDS, 19 July 2011.
- “The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawing Collection, Catalog Raisonne” Museum of Modern Art. New York, 2009
- “Off the books – Drawing in Text Space”, curated by Benjamin Degen, Frederieke Taylor Gallery. New York, 2009.
- Smith, Roberta, “ART IN REVIEW: The Ankle Bones are Higher on the Inside,” THE NEW YORK TIMES, 31 July 2009.
- Smith, Roberta, THE NEW YORK TIMES, 7 February 2009 p. C5.[10]
References
- ^ "Top Ten Contemporary Art Exhibits in 2013". HUFFINGTON POST. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
- ^ "Benjamin Degen". FOLIOLEAF. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
- ^ "Benjamin Degen". CREEM MAGAZINE. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
- ^ "Benjamin Degen". THE BROOKLYN RAIL. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
- ^ "'Benjamin Degen: Shadow, Ripple and Reflection' at Susan Inglett Gallery". THE NEW YORK OBSERVER. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
- ^ "Benjamin Degen at Susan Inglett Gallery". NEW YORK ART TOURS. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
- ^ "Purple: Benjamin Degen at Susan Inglett Gallery". ARTFAGCITY. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
- ^ "Archetypes and Historicity: Painting and Other Radical Forms 1995-2007". SILVANA EDITORIALE. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
- ^ "Benjamin Degen". IT'S NICE THAT. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
- ^ "A Gallery Goes Out in a Burst of Energy". THE NEW YORK TIMES. Retrieved 8 May 2015.