Ben Aronson: New York Minutes

BEN ARONSON NEW YORK MINUTES

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Ben Aronson New York Minutes October 8 - November 13

Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com cover: Crosswalk, 2021, Oil on panel, 11" x 14"

Ben Aronson | New York Minutes Ben Aronson is recognized as one of America's most respected and evocative painters of the contemporary urban landscape. His signature synthesis of realism and abstraction expressively translates everyday forms of metropolitan life – rooftops, skyscrapers, streets, stop signs, and sidewalks – into resplendent arrangements of geometry and motion, light, and shadow. Through his masterful, loosely painted evocations of atmosphere, color, and light, Aronson’s remarkable paintings convey the sensory experience of a captured moment in the life of a city.

The artist’s expressive painterly style is characterized by fluid, yet restrained brushwork. “The main objective is not merely to capture physical likeness,” Aronson says, “but rather to aim for the most concentrated form of a powerful visual experience.” This gestural application of paint – while underpinned by remarkable precision – conveys his imagery through suggestions of implied movement and space.

Aronson renders this sophisticated engagement with the urban world in fleeting glimpses of movement and evanescent light – the cosmopolitan grid alternately sharpened and blurred into areas of streaking geometry and hard-edged shadow.

Ben Aronson studied at the School of Fine Arts at Boston University under Reed Kay, John Wilson, and James Weeks, who introduced Aronson to the Bay Area Figurative Movement. Aronson was also under the tutelage of Philip Guston and worked as his studio assistant. Ben Aronson was the recipient of the 2006 Childe Hassam Purchase Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Aronson’s paintings are included in the permanent collections of more than fifty museums, including the de Young Museum in San Francisco; National Academy Museum, New York; Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Eli & Edythe Broad Museum, Michigan; Houston Museum of Fine Arts; New Mexico Museum of Art; and the Orangerie in Gera, Germany, among others.

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Brooklyn Bridge, 2021 Oil on panel, 32.5" x 24" 3

Along the Hudson, 2021 Oil on panel, 12" x 12" 4

Sunset, Near Columbus Circle, 2021 Oil on panel, 12" x 12" 5

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Rising Sun, 5th Avenue, 2021 Oil on panel, 11" x 14" 7

St. Patrick's in Snow, 2021 Oil on panel, 12" x 12" 8

Downtown Over Broadway, 2021 Oil on panel, 36" x 13 3/8" 9

Twilight on Madison, 2014 Oil on panel, 12" x 12" 10

Rain, Fifth Avenue, 2021 Oil on panel, 30" x 30" 11

Early Spring, Manhattan, 2021 Oil on panel, 11" x 14" 12

Merging Traffic, Closed Ramp Series, 2014 Oil on panel, 50" x 38" 13

Night Rain, Union Square, 2021 Oil on panel, 11" x 14" 14

Lifting Skies, Chelsea, 2021 Oil on panel, 12" x 12" 15

Dawn, Manhattan, 2011 Oil on panel, 30" x 32" 16

Spring Morning, Fifth Avenue, 2014 Oil on panel, 60" x 60" 17

Taxis on Madison, 2016 Oil on panel, 60" x 60" 18

72nd St. Subway Station, 2004 Oil on canvas, 68" x 66" 19

Closed Ramp, 2007 Four color intaglio etching, 23 1/2" x 20 7/8" 20

Ben Aronson b. 1958, Boston, MA

AWARDS 2006

Childe Hassam Purchase Prize, American Academy of Arts

EDUCATION

and Letters, New York, NY

1980-82 MFA in Painting, Boston University, MA

2005

Academician Appointment, National Academy of Design,

1976-80 BFA in Painting, Boston University, MA

New York, NY

2004

Benjamin Altman Landscape Prize, National Academy of

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Design, New York, NY

2021

New York Minutes, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM

J. Sanford Saltus Gold Medal, National Academy of Design,

2019

Views From Above, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM

New York, NY

2017

Perspective and the Ephemeral, LewAllen Galleries,

1992

Ogden M. Pleissner Painting Award, National Academy of

Santa Fe, NM

Design, New York, NY

2014

Light and Memory, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San

1988

The Blanche E. Coleman Award for Painting

Francisco, CA

Rhode Island State Council for the Arts Grant

2013

Cityscapes, Asheville Art Museum, NC

The St. Botolph Foundation Grant in Painting

Cityscapes, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA

1986

The Blanche E. Coleman Award for Painting

2011

Ann Norton Sculpture Museum, West Palm Beach, FL

Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME

SELECTED PUBLIC & INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS

Here and Now, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San

Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH

Francisco, CA

Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH

2010

Risk and Reward, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY

Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA

2009

The Urban Signature, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA

DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA

2008

Urban Currents, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY

Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE

The Figure in Context, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San

Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, CO

Francisco, CA

de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

2007

Explorations, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San

Eli and Edythe Broad Museum of Art, East Lansing, MI

Francisco, CA

Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA

2006

Recent Works, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA

Mazovian Museum, Plock, Poland

2005

Recent Works, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

2004

Painterly Visualizations, Jenkins Johnson Gallery,

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

San Francisco, CA

National Academy Museum, New York, NY

2003

DFN Gallery, New York, NY

National Museum of Fine Arts, Malta

2002

Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA

New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM

2000

Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA

New Orleans Museum of Art, LA

1999

Scott White Contemporary, La Jolla, CA

Ogunquit Museum of American Art, ME Orlando Museum of Art, FL

1998

Sydney Bernard Fine Arts, Hollywood, CA

Palm Springs Art Museum, CA

1997

MB Modern, New York, NY

San Diego Museum of Art, CA

1996

Horwitch Newman Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ

Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA

Jerry Solomon Gallery, Hollywood, CA

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Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com © 2021 LewAllen Contemporary, LLC 24 Artwork © Ben Aronson