ARTIST BIO
Lin Wen-Ben (林文彬) was born in Taichung City, Taiwan in 1992. His favorite medium as a child was Asian calligraphy. At 12, he was adopted by Don and Jim Alderman and legally changed his name to Ben Alderman. When Ben came to America, while learning English, his drawing skills enabled him to communicate with schoolmates. To this day he uses art to translate his ideas and thoughts.
In between studying at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, Ben took a year to show work in between. Upon arriving at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design he received a scholarship and got a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in painting in 2016. He has shown in various locations such as Alaska, Arizona and Colorado. In his studio, he has been experimenting with various concepts and materials. His practice is questioning and reconstructing cultural materials with poetic elements.
ARTIST STATMENTS
As an artist, I am invested in experimental mark-making. Pushing beyond the abstract-expressionist tendency to create stylistic practices in a relative cultural vacuum, I instead embrace cultural signifiers and props that can play into painterly expression. Juxtapositions of base materials in final paintings can question the cultural assumptions of those objects, or props, and simultaneously transfigure their original meaning.