Benjamin L.M. recently had a showing in Miami, his ninth exhibition in the US. With such success in America, we thought it only right that we get the words from an American on this amazing Australian artist.
As an American, it might seem presumptuous to say that Benjamin L.M. strikes me as a quintessentially Australian artist. There is a stark boldness to his paintings, an immediate allure. However, if one looks more closely, there is also that sense of displacement which comes from working on the margin, both physically and spiritually. While the margin can be difficult terrain, its traversal is often the only way in which an artist can experience true freedom, the space to speak with vulnerability and sensitivity. And this is where Benjamin L.M. has, for many years, been tracking his vision, from barely anthropomorphized portrayals of eagles and lions (an example of the former appeared on the cover of the Summer 2014 issue of The Artist Showcase magazine), to something that has become altogether personal and idiosyncratic. In recent paintings, jagged figures seem to float or fly through flaming ethereal atmospheres or soft, star-filled firmaments. Though these scenes might feel strangely familiar, one can never quite put a name to them, and this is where the viewer is allowed to bring their own emotions and experiences to the work.
After a showing at Art Basel Miami this past December, his ninth exhibition in the US, Benjamin L.M. will publish a fifth book of poems in January 2016, it’s called “Seething with Hope on Top of the World” and it is accompanied by music and spoken word. To capture the right mix of shadow and romance, voice recordings were done in the south of France with Philippe Petit, who has collaborated with Barry Adamson, the once-and-current member of Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds, and that chanteuse of transgression, Lydia Lunch. But Benjamin’s poetry and spoken word are not separate from his painting; it is all part of a worldview that gains cohesion across disciplines. Yet whatever the medium, we are always on the edge, where the roiling sea meets the unquenchable desert, and the bloody heart meets the indomitable human spirit, each blending one into another under the blessed expanse of an endless, otherworldly sky.
Words by: American writer John Mulhouse
To see artwork, books, and album covers by Benjamin L.M. visit: http://www.benjaminlm.com/.
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