In search of a departure from the traditional canvas support, James Benjamin Franklin creates paintings in the realm of objecthood that employ time, texture, and unrestricted materiality. Beginning with an organic and tactile support of his own invention, the artist creates deep surfaces that hold layers of second hand fabric, carpet, towel, and pools and trails of paint, sand, and glitter. The essentiality of the work emerges from its construction, governed by the will of its materials —of gesture and solidification in response to mass and gravity. As such, Franklin pursues the unfamiliar and welcomes chance, unable to predict how his materials will accept or counter his movements in paint. What results is a body of work full of life and activity that touches the realm of sculpture and imbues the memory of process, material history, and the artist’s reciprocity.
James Benjamin Franklin received his BFA from the Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, CA) in 1999 and his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art (Bloomfield Hills, MI) in 2017. Notable exhibitions include Cranbrook Museum of Art (Bloomfield Hills, MI); KMAC (Louisville, KY); FRONT International, the Cleveland Institute of Art (Cleveland, OH); Broadway (New York, NY); Museum of Contemporary Art (Detroit, MI); Reyes | Finn (Detroit, MI); and Proyectos Monclova (Mexico City, MX).
Born in Tacoma, Washington (1972)
Lives and works in Detroit, Michigan