Ben Medd-Phillips (b.1985 Upstate New York) works between the Kent coast and London. He holds an MFA degree from Kingston School of Art. His work lends itself towards abstraction but there are often figurative and organic components found within the pieces. He works in a haphazard manner, which isn’t to say that there aren’t plans when entering the studio but ultimately whatever idea you’ve dreamt up will invariably fall short of the reality when executing marks intuitively. Ben embraces stoicism in the sense he accepts what he can and cannot control when painting and allows the external elements to do as they please. The unknown outcomes are what he finds most fascinating, achieved through a usage of multiple liquid mediums with a variety of tools on different surfaces. The most successful works emanate qualities that seem almost effortless, not forced or trying too hard ‘Slackerstraction’ (slacker abstraction) Ben terms it.
Benjamin Medd-Phillips 