Ben Sanderson
In February 2019 – February 2021 I had a residency at Trebah Gardens on the Helford River. During my time at Trebah, I organised a series of garden walks with specialists (an ethnobotanical researcher, gardeners, a psychiatrist, a herbalist, artists, poets, and friends) and we discussed in depth the space between people and plants. These conversations went on to inform my work in the studio and have left me still questioning what happens at the garden’s edge.
These interests evolved through my working process where images and forms come and go, and systems are interrupted. The works develop slowly, attuned to the seasons, embracing cyclical processes of growth and decay. I work in painting, drawing and textiles, often returning to existing pieces and transforming them: monotypes on paper are developed and echoed in printed elements that appear on canvas; canvas is sewn and patched back together or mulched to become rag paper, which in turn becomes a ground for new painting.
EDUCATION
Syllabus III, Wysing Arts Centre, Eastside Projects, New Contemporaries, S1 Artspace, Spike Island, Studio Voltaire, 2017-2018
University College Falmouth, BA (hons) Fine Art, 2006-2009
Foundation in Art and Design, Coventry University, 2005-2006
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Ouroboros, MIRROR gallery, Plymouth, 20234
In Flower Beds, Hweg, Cornwall, 2023
Bridge the Tamar, Mirror, Plymouth, 2023
Exeter Contemporary Open, Exeter Phoenix Gallery, Exeter, 2022
Thanks For the Apples, Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall, 2021
Your Foot in my Face, Kingsgate Project Space, London, 2021
Green at an Angle, Kestle Barton, Cornwall, 2021 (solo)
Glade, Potager Garden, curated by Luke Frost, Cornwall, 2020
Chicken Nuggets, Pool School Gallery, Cornwall, 2019
Unbounded, Eden Project, Cornwall, 2019
Scenes, Curated by Naomi Frears, Newlyn Art Gallery Picture Room, Cornwall, 2019
Equinoxy, Sam Bassett’s Studio, St Ives, Cornwall, 2019
Where it is, there it is, Auction House, Redruth, Cornwall2018
Can we Still Be Friends?, Guest Projects, London, 2018
These Fingers Read Sideways, Monomatic, Fetes College, Edinburgh, 2018
What is this Place?, Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall, 2017
Smile Orange, Cubitt Gallery, London, 2015
Adam Collier, Aimée Parrott, & Ben Sanderson, Naomi Frears Studio, St Ives, Cornwall, 2015
Testing Tropes, Kestle Barton, Cornwall, 2015
Strepitus, Crepitus, Fragor, curated by Naomi Frears, Penwith Gallery, Cornwall, 2015
First Eleven, CAST, Cornwall, 2013
The Dark Rooms, CAST, Cornwall, 2013
COMMISSIONS
Hospital Rooms, Cove ward Redruth, 2024
Hospital Rooms, Bethlem Mother and Baby Unit, London, 2021
The Six Pillars of Modernism, collaboration with Ella Frears, Tate St Ives, Cornwall, 2017
RESIDENCIES
Pool School Gallery, Cornwall, 2019-2020
Trebah Gardens, Cornwall, 2019/2021
The Cornwall Workshop led by Christina Mackie, Kestle Barton, Cornwall, 2017
Home Service Project, Newlyn Art Gallery and Crossroads Care Home, Cornwall, 2016/2017 Retreat, Cornwall, 2016/17/18
AWARDS
Southwest Showcase, 2023
Arts Council DYCP, 2023
Syllabus III Bursary Fenton Arts Trust - 2017