About

I am a visual artist with a keen interest in body and space. In my projects, I examine debatable forms of linguistic mistakes or “dirty” environments which are subject to human control. I do this by exploring ways of subverting predominant authoritarian systems of knowledge and the dichotomy between right and wrong, good and bad.

Within my work I reflect on my lived experience of continuously being corrected for spelling mistakes, due to my dyslexia. These dissonances or errors are carefully corrected in our current-day society, as anything outside the norm is deemed unproductive and therefore excluded. By exposing the hidden dynamics of the power relations that structure and regulate the way we were taught to distinguish right from wrong, I question how those systems came into existence and who holds the position to dictate those binary oppositions.

My iterative research projects consist of installations, videos, sculptures and props that sometimes function as the stage for performances. With these site-specific environments I create echo spaces that are full of repetition, dogma and correction: like a bathroom, classroom, ballet studio or autopsy theater.

Benjamin Francis, lives in Amsterdam and works in Zaandam

Residency:

2022 Hotel Maria Kapel, Hoorn
2022 Het HEM, Zaandam
2018 Künstlerhäuser Worpswede

Eduaction:

2016 - 2020 Bear ArtEZ, Arnhem. Tutors James Beckett & Edward Clydesdale Thomson

Selected Solo Shows

2022 Hotel Maria Kapel Soloshow, Hoorn - A body without it’s Flesh
Singular Art, Nijmegen - Zero
2021 SECONDroom Antwerpen - Solo show, Crypt
P/////AKT,Amsterdam,Netherlands - The removal of the eye
P/////AKT, Amsterdam, Netherlands - A body without it's flesh

Selected Groupshow

2023 If I Can’t Dance, Amsterdam - Open Rehearsal, curated by Mini Maxwell
limassolartwalks x Joey ramone , Cyprus, curated by Kiki Petratou
2022 Kunsthuis SYB, Beterzwaag -The Sybren Hellinga Art Prize, curated by Titus Nouwens
Het HEM, Detail - Zaandam - curated by Rieke Leonie
Nieuw en meer, Amsterdam, Show me what you got, curated by Chantal van Lieshout
Tinimini Room - Dordrecht
2021 Mutter, Amsterdam, Blood sea, curated by Angels miralda, Amsterdam
P/////AKT, Amsterdam - Duo show with Tessa Langeveld
Het HEM, Zaandam, All In curated by Rieke Leonie
W139, Amsterdam, Love For Sale
Allél0n, London - Maundy
2020 Productiehuis Plaatsmaken, Arnhem, curated by Fleur Lamers
Omstand Arnhem, Arnhem - Curated by Fleur Lamers

Grants & prizes

2022 Amarte fonds

2022 Nomination for: SYBREN HELLINGA ART PRIZE

2023 Stichting Niemeijerfonds

2023 Stichting Stokroos

Publication

Feature

Daily Lazy - The removal of the eye

YYYYMMDD - The removal of the eye

KUNSTBLIJFTEENRAADSEL - Eindexamenpresentaties

Art viewer - Postcards from the edge

TrendBeheer - Rondje P/////AKT