Ben Ashton’s exhibition selected for curator-led FirstThursday’s bus tour

November 5th, 2010

Introduction

Simon Oldfield Gallery supports emerging artists by providing studio facilities and exciting opportunities for exhibiting artworks. Simon Oldfield is the founder of The Bloomsbury Studio, which opened in 2008, offering subsidized live/work spaces for young artists. Simon Oldfield Gallery also supports The Whitechapel Gallery through the patron programme. This innovative exhibition space, which was formerly a stonemason’s showroom, opened in October 2009 with a solo show by British artist Ben Ashton. Ashton graduated with a Masters from Slade School of Fine Art in 2008 and is currently artist-in-residence at The Bloomsbury Studio.

Exhibition

Ben Ashton’s artistic practice is concerned with the themes of voyeurism and performance. For this exhibition he examines notions of celebrity, looking to the historical context of portraiture as his inspiration. As a painter, Ashton displays a high level of technical ability and this seductive quality is underpinned with a self-reflexive consideration of representation. The artist places himself at the centre of the work, subverting the conventional dichotomy of the artist and model and investigating the affect of pose and the politics of viewing. By portraying himself as a recurring subject in each image, he exposes the artifice of representation by exploring a variety of compositional techniques. Ashton’s work playfully invites us to consider the narcissism of celebrity and the notion of authorship, both throughout artistic practice and wider culture.

A fascinating aspect of Ashton’s work is his experimental approach towards installation, using mirrors and constructions to question the interpretation of imagery and the subjectivity of vision. Ashton addresses the theatrical tendencies of portraiture through his performative modes of display, a method that is highly successful in this gallery space. The artist has created kaleidoscopic tunnels and viewing platforms, including a site-specific window display that draws our attention to the external space of the gallery and its former purpose as a stonemason’s showroom. His use of stereoscopic photographs creates the illusion of three dimensions by presenting a different image to each eye, momentarily suspending our perception of reality. In a critical response to the traditional salon style exhibition, Ashton’s solo show presents an innovative and contemporary perspective on the genre of portraiture.

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