43 PORTRAITS BY BENJI WEINRYB GROHSGAL
On Exhibit June 11 - June 23
Artist Reception: Friday, June 14
Name - 43 portraits
Artist Statement - last summer, I was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, the symptoms for which had me lose the use of my right hand. Shortly after my diagnosis, I bought an iPad and taught myself how to draw with my left hand, which was strangely not that difficult. Since then, I have been creating work, accepting commissions, and otherwise keeping myself busy. Commissioned work has included a feature on instagram’s design page, Hotel Gaythering in Miami, and private commissions, etc.
I used to have a right hand and now I don’t (as a righty). So I switched to digital, retrained my brain, and away we go. New prints most days, unless I’m too tired, from the brain cancer.
My work has continued to become a mashup of surreality and sexuality. While it's always bordered on that, living here has let me further that pursuit. I work across media, but thus far, mostly drawing, painting, cut paper, and photographic portraiture (that often combines elements of paper and drawing). My first art show this last summer here sums things up well: a collection of 20 paintings, under the name 'landscapes', that were surreal moments, sometimes phallic, imbued with emotion and memory and symbolism from my youth and observant religious upbringing. My photography and paperwork pursue a goal of 'strange thirst' - creating images that are cartoonish, ridiculous, and weird but also still sexual and sensual and meant to create desire. I like to oscillate between these extremes of naive cartoonishness and heavy queer themes.
