Ben Cove

1974 – 2016

We first met Ben Cove in his home town at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, which is run by Kwong Lee, (then) one of our Trustees. Ben later submitted work for Art Gene’s NW Open Prize 2005 exhibition and was awarded a two month residency at Art Gene.

This took some time to come to fruition as we first had to fund raise for and install suitable facilities in studio 5 and a lift down a flight of steps to Art Gene’s office. Working around Ben’s availability we were finally able to welcome Ben to Art Gene in 2007. We were particularly interested in the relationship between Ben’s artistic practice and his long-standing interest in architecture.

His use of humour allied to the poignancy of his commentary appealed to the panel of judges. His diverse portfolio of work which covers painting, print making, sculpture, drawing and photography, and his artworks on the edges of architecture were also of interest.

Ben originally trained in architecture before completing degrees in Fine Art and we were interested to gain a better understanding of how this informed his practice and discover any further parallels between his work and that of Art Gene’s research remit: the role of artists and architects in Re-Visioning the regeneration of the social, natural and built environment.

 

Image above: Northwest Open Prize, 2005, Art Gene Gallery

 

Artist in Residence

Ben used his residency as an opportunity to focus on the fabrication of a large scale work entitled A Structure to Stand Up In alongside some other smaller pieces. During his residency, Ben researched the relationship between modernist architecture and vernacular structures, a particular passion shared with many of Art Gene’s Artists and Architects in Residence.

Artist Camilla Lyon (UK) shared studio 5 with Ben during his residency, creating a number of her own pieces in concrete and Formica and one of her pieces was later exhibited in the 2007 Art Gene Open Prize exhibition.

 

External links

www.benjamincove.com
Ben Cove, Axis Web
Camilla Lyon

 

Image below: Ben Cove, Northwest Open Prize winner’s works 2005, Superman’s First Love, SuperManor and Lori Falls for Clarke’, 2001