Benjamin King – Controlled Burn

Freight + Volume is pleased to announce Benjamin King’s “Controlled Burn”, his fourth solo exhibition with the gallery. Benjamin King’s landscapes navigate the liminal terrain between the familiar and the uncanny. In “Controlled Burn”, King focuses his gaze on the elemental nature of the forest, offering a perspective that transcends our often limited, anthropocentric understanding of time and place. His waterways lure the viewer into unpeopled landscapes that vibrate with life.

King’s process is one of layering and accumulation. He builds his surfaces with a rich impasto, incorporating sand and thick paint to evoke the sedimentary history of fertile marshes. King’s impressionist use of dotted leaves capture the ephemeral vitality of trees bathed in sunlight. He ignites his foliage with fiery golds and reds, and then evokes the cool geometry of rocks and lunar twilight – sometimes within the same canvas.

“Controlled Burn” also reveals King’s unique approach to the canvas as a site of continual revision. He often paints over older works, allowing previous images to subtly inform and resonate within the new. This act of erasure and creation, of destruction and renewal, is reflected in the regenerative nature of controlled burns – intentional fires that clear away the old to make way for the new. King’s paintings invite contemplation of the elemental forces that shape and reshape our world.

Benjamin King lives and works in Poughkeepsie, NY. He holds an MFA from the University of Chicago and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Gallery hours Tue-Sat 11 am – 6 pm

Exhibition Duration 08 March – 05 April 2025

www.freightandvolume.com

Location:
Freight + Volume
39 Lispenard St.
10013 New York, NY
United States