DETROIT, MI – Reyes Projects is pleased to announce a solo presentation of new work by Detroit-based artist James Benjamin Franklin at NADA New York, March 8 - 11, 2018. This will be the gallery’s first booth at the fair’s New York iteration.
Loosely constructed shapes and unwieldy textures combine in Franklin’s work to form a style that is uniquely untethered by traditional narrative. Shape, texture, and pallete flow into one another, overlap, and expand in dynamic compositions liberated from the confines of a canvas. In these works, Franklin has found solace in the ambiguity of sculptural painting with shapes born from wire, and panels from objects found in his studio. Franklin’s forms became unwieldy, even awkward, but are no less vibrant and exciting for it. Their lack of balance implies a kineticism and propulsion echoed in their push into three dimensions.
At NADA New York, a selection of the artist’s works will find homes on shelves that line the gallery booth’s walls. They will be complemented by a series of larger free-standing shapes, vibrant in gesture and anything but stagnant.
These approachable works engage a dialogue that questions the nature and expressive potential of creativity — how our subrational responses dominate decision making, how our trust in them opens up creative possibilities to expose not only the power of our intuition, but our vulnerability to it. With this presentation, the artist encourages the viewer to meditate on the basic framework of craft, exposing evidence of his process – layers, splatters, drips, the underlying structure – in plain sight.
ABOUT JAMES BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Born in Tacoma, WA, James Benjamin Franklin graduated from Art Center College of Design in 1999. In 2017, he graduated from Cranbrook Academy of Art this spring (2017) from the painting department. Franklin currently lives and works in Detroit, MI, and his artistic influences include Shirley Jaffe, Thornton Dial, Richard Diebenkorn, Alexander Calder and Agnes Martin among others. Recent exhibitions include Suspect Sentence at Reyes Projects (Detroit) and Geometrix at Galerie Camile (Detroit).
ABOUT REYES PROJECTS Reyes Projects was established in 2017, Reyes Projects is a contemporary art gallery in Birmingham, Michigan. The gallery occupies a 4,600-square foot space in a newly-renovated landmark building on Old Woodward Avenue. Reyes Projects will reveal six exhibitions a year dedicated to emerging and mid-career artists. It is with such presentations that the gallery seeks to reveal a profile both internationally renowned and regional in dialogue. Collaborating with local patrons and institutions alike, the gallery hopes to continue to diversify and strengthen Detroit’s arts community. Please visit www.reyesprojects.com.
PRESS CONTACT Cultural Counsel Erin Pinover, Senior Account Executive erin@culturalcounsel.com