Ben Buswell
Iris Project Resident: September, 2021
Ben Buswell (b. 1974 in Dallas, Oregon) is an artist and educator based in Portland, Oregon. Buswell's sculptural work spans diverse media, encompassing glass, ceramics, metals, resins, incised photographs and more. He subjects these materials to physical processes (such as scratching, piercing, melting and tearing) wherein the accumulation of small, repetitive gestures build into a complex whole. In his most recent work, created during the pandemic and political upheaval of 2020/21, Buswell looks to horizons as a surrogate for knowing and acceptance. Through the investigation of Penrose diagrams, the materiality of photography and reflectivity as both symbolic and perceptual form, the work continues to invite close and attentive looking and speaks to the ambiguities of the space between self and other.
Buswell received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and BFA from Oregon State University. Buswell is a Hallie Ford Fellow in the Visual Arts (2015) and a two-time recipient of the Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission and Ford Family Foundation (2014 and 2011) and received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission in 2018. Buswell has had notable solo exhibitions at Upfor, Samuel Freeman in Los Angeles, CoCA Seattle, The Art Gym at Marylhurst University and TILT Gallery and Project Space in Portland. His work was included in Portland2012: A Biennial of Contemporary Art presented by Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, The BAM Biennial in 2016 and The Oregon Biennial at the Portland Art Museum (2006). Collections that house his work include that of Jan and Patricia de Bont and the public collections at Portland Community College, The University of Oregon and the Collaborative Life Sciences Building at Oregon Health and Science University. He recently completed commissions for Western Oregon University and Hyatt Centric.
This residency program is possible thanks to The Ford Family Foundation's support and partnerships with Yucca Valley Material Lab and Venice Arts.