ARTIST BIO
Ben Alderman, also known as Lin Wen-Ben, was born in Taiwan and moved to the United States in adolescence. He was adopted by two men who he now considers to be his fathers. His experience of being adopted at twelve gives him fuel to produce his artworks; the dichotomy of Eastern and Western art culture merges into Ben’s creative process. He was exposed to Asian calligraphy when he was in Taiwan. To this day, he still thinks about the aesthetics of this art form—the human touch and the brushstroke. This influence shows up in his work, which is often visually expressionistic.
His work has been shown in Leon Gallery, Supernova Digital Animation Festival, Lakewood Cultural Center, projection mapping on the Lannie's Clock Tower in Denver, and New American Painting No. 132.
As an artist, Wen-Ben explores ready-made material and culture. He is interested in the materiality of objects and art. A process artist examines the notion of illusion and often combines time-based media with sculptural elements. He uses art to organize his perception of contemporary life and produces works with poetic gestures. The juror of the New American Painting No. 132 Valerie Cassel Oliver states that “Wen-Ben’s featured images are comprised of prompts used in his performances as well as paintings on canvas created out of his performative actions. The mere fact that the young artist understands his practice as inherently and unapologetically painting is evocative of the foundational practices of the late 1960s and early ‘70s when the search for new forms within established traditions gave prominence to “practice as spectacle.”