The UT Downtown Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of work by Ben Seamons. Ben received his MFA in Painting from the University of Tennessee in 2012. He passed away in 2016, and this exhibition is in celebration of his life.

“My recent paintings depict human figures that arise out of a painting process that sets the subject matter and the paint on a collision course. The use of gestural abstraction in relationship to the figure conjures unanticipated moments where figures are caught in metaphysical experiences. The figure and the gesture emerge and dissolve, they co-evolve with their meaning, recognizing each other as counterparts. They become embedded or hidden within layers of paint that are deposited over time. The paint is the medium that transmits a kind of psychic reality and elicits themes of boundary dissolution: between material and spirit, the body and space; between the violent and the ecstatic, the concentrated and the diluted.” -Ben Seamons