Ben Wilson
Ben Wilson (b.1963) is an English wood carver creating huge wooden sculptures both in his garden in London and also in Finland, Australia and the USA. However, he is better known as the chewing gum man, where he creates tiny works of art painted onto chewing gum that he finds on the pavement. Initially, these pieces brought him unwanted attention from the police, but because he was not defacing private property and merely painting discarded rubbish, he was found to not be breaking the law. He continues this form of art to this day, having created over 10,000 paintings.
The works on display in the exhibition are his works before he started on the chewing gum – his black and white series from 2004. They were produced in a local coffee shop where many Muswell Hill residents will recall a gentle, friendly artist, creating scroll after scroll of paintings, day after day. They explore aspects of our social landscape and the alienation that can be felt in our own environment. Often, there is a resemblance of a streetscape with pathways allowing the spectator to enter from one side and move through the picture, encountering man and nature dealing with issues of freedom and confinement.
Although Wilson attended art school, he did not like the overanalysing from the tutors and so dropped out and has been creating work ever since, powered by his own passion and drive. His works now feature in many collections around the world including the Folk Museum of Kaustinen in Finland, the American Visionary Art Museum in the USA and the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection at the Whitworth, UK.
EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS
2019 Millennium Bridge Chewing Gum Trail, London
2019 Outsider Art Fair, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York
2018 Thoughts and Utterances: Threading together the narrative of life, Pop-up exhibition, London
2014 Raw Vision 25 Year Anniversary Show, Halle Saint Pierre, Paris
2009-2013 Exhibitions at the Julian Hartnoll Gallery, London, curated by Vivienne Roberts
