BEN BUSWELL
THE STORY IS NOT THE STORY
October 19 – December 2, 2017
Preview reception (artist present) October 18, 5:30 to 7:30pm
First Thursday art walk (artist present) November 2, 6:00 to 8:00pm
Artist talk: Ben Buswell in conversation with Meagan Atiyeh, Saturday, November 4, 4:00pm
THE WORK
For his third solo exhibition at Upfor, Ben Buswell presents fused glass and photo-based sculptures. The photo-based works in The Story is Not the Story feature close-up images of obsidian, a naturally occurring volcanic glass, taken by Buswell at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument in Oregon. Buswell-hand embellished the glossy emulsion layer of each photograph with an accumulation of scratches, then built and painted unusually shaped frames for them. To create two of the sculptures in the exhibition, Buswell carefully pressed a flag of the United States into a bed of white frit (silica granules), then heat fused the frit, resulting in a crystalline debossment. Continuing his use of slow physical processes such as scratching and melting, the artist eschews language and symbolism as forms of communication, preferring the shared physical experiences of making and viewing artwork as a way to create mutual empathy.
THE ARTIST
Ben Buswell (b. 1974 in Dallas, Oregon) is based in Portland, Oregon. A Hallie Ford Fellow in the Visual Arts (2015), Buswell is also a two-time recipient of Oregon Arts Commission Career Opportunity Grants and recently completed a residency at Bullseye Glass in Portland. Notable solo exhibitions in addition to Upfor include Samuel Freeman, Los Angeles; The Art Gym at Marylhurst University and CoCA Seattle. He was included in the major group exhibitions Portland2012: A Biennial of Contemporary Art presented by Disjecta Contemporary Art Center and The Oregon Biennial at the Portland Art Museum (2006).