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                Download portfolio (english version)

                                 

                 Download portfolio (en français)

 

 

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For ten years Ben Jack Nash also worked using the law to defend those who found themselves subjugated to society's margins - prisoners, asylum seekers, young offenders and mental health patients. In addition, a background in activism and social justice involved bringing government agencies and corporations to account. His diverse artistic practise extends these experiences whereby the social and the physical are cut from the same cloth, both capable of being seen as matter. Often collaborative, his work has crossed over with science, politics and academia. Art projects include responding to community vacuums, site and event specific installations, film, performance and talks.  

 

An important feature of his works thinks approaches matter as a 'spectrum of identities'. This is expressed through physical artworks but also as a useful tool for re-imagining new areas of knowledge, challenge institutional power structures and help understand socio-political trends in economics, attitudes, values and culture. Matter is understood as a relationship oscillating between material and abstract dimensions and lying at the heart of function and perception. A special area of curiosity concerns threshold zones when matter nudges from one state towards another. These moments and places are mysterious, profoundly influential, hard to fathom in the act and can only be deduced through traces or hindsight. Recent projects have explored this in relation to the dramatic rises in nationalism, changing perceptions of time and the anthropocene.

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Working in more academic settings, texts and writings focus on what he terms 'Triple A' - Age of Accelerated Abstractification [sic] and often involves teaming up with other non-art based disciplines. AAA suggests how we should use the lens of art, aesthetics and  matter to consider social and political phenomenon as comparable to the behaviour of material, space and movement.

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Lives and works in Strasbourg and London

Represented by Gallery Radial Contemporain

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SOLO PROJECTS

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2024      Chaud Time, Council of Europe Palais,  Strasbourg - FR

2023      Correspondanz, w. Benno Blome, Alter Schlachthof, Karlsruhe - GER

2022      What's the matter with catastrophes? University of Derby - UK     

2021       Is Populism made from Plastic? HEPP #2, University of Helsinki - FL

2021       Invitrineous, Radial gallery, Strasbourg - FR

2021       An Artist in the President's cabinet? Ateliers Ouverts, Bastion XIV, Strasbourg - FR

2019       Almost...but not quite, Radial gallery, Strasbourg - FR

2018       Les Résidus du Vide/ Leftover from the Void, Reichshoffen abandoned synagogue - FR

2016       Council of Europe, Strasbourg - FR

2014       Standby, Zwingenberg public art gallery, Alsbach  - GER

2013       Kayserguet (Kartier Nord), Pavillion Henri-Louis Kayser, Strasbourg - FR

2013       Nour Festival of Arts and Culture, Chelsea Old Town Hall,  installation for launch

                 of festival; Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London- UK

2012       Sculpted Colour, Galerie Planet Theatre, Strasbourg - FR

2012       Jeunes Artistes, Galerie Quédar (now Galerie Art’Course), Strasbourg - FR

2012       Book jacket, ‘Islamic Veiling in Legal Discourse’, Routledge publishers - UK

2012       The Council of Europe, wall installation, Strasbourg - FR

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GROUP PROJECTS (selected)

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2024      Marie d'Eschau, Strasbourg - FR

2024      Correspondanz, Gallery Luis Leu, Karlsruhe - GER

2023      Chaud Time, European Biennale for Creativity, Shadok, Strasbourg - FR

2023       L'heure bleu, Galerie Radial, Strasbourg - FR

2023       Correspondanz, Syndicat Potentiel, Strasbourg - FR

2022       25 Kunstlermesse (art fair), Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe - GER

2021        St-Art art fair, Strasbourg ( in assoc. with the city of Strasbourg) - FR

2021        1 jour 1 oeuvre (online), Department of Culture and Arts, Ville de Strasbourg - FR

2019        Summer Exhibition, Radial gallery, Strasbourg - FR

2019        ...lieratelieratel..., les ateliers ouverts, Bastion XIV, Strasbourg - FR

2016        Regionale 17, Cargo, Basel - CZ

2016        Arte Laguna, Arsenale, Venice - IT

2015        Creekside Open (curated by Richard Deacon), APT Gallery, London - UK

2015        The Open West, The Wilson Contemporary, Cheltenham - UK

2014        [In]visible, Shape Gallery, London - UK

2014        Wells Art Contemporary (curated by Richard Wentworth/ Anita Taylor/ Donald

                 Smith), Wells and Mendip Museum - UK

2014        Verve Sculpture Prize, Loud and Western, London

2014        Showcase, Nesta Headquarters, London- UK

2013        Je Crise, Tu Crise, Nous Luttons; Jarnis Médiathèque, Moselle - FR

2013        Aesthetica Art Prize, York St. Mary’s, York - UK

2013        Borders, Iranian Culture Festival, The Art’s Complex Gallery, Edinburgh - UK

2012        Hybrid Identities, Gallery Scoletta di San Giovanni Battista, Venice - UK

2012        Global Village, Bronden Strand Centrum, Copenhagen - DK

2012        Backlash, Soho20 Gallery, New York - US

2012        Hidden cities, Hotel Ripa, Rome - IT

2012        Kodina, Arbeit Gallery, London - UK

2012        Global Village, Château de Sully, Borgogne - FR

2012        Global Village, Projekt  72, Alkmaar - NL

2012        Cultural Identity, Palazzo Albrizzi Gallery, Venice - IT

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PRIZES & AWARDS

     

2023      ADAGP project support grant - FR

2022      Tango&Scan (Accro) with Blackleaf/ ATTA02, project winners - FR 

2022      25th Karlsruher Künstlermesse Prize, exhibited finalist - GER

2020      Individual artistic creation (aide individuelle a la création), Grand Est region - FR

2018       Bastion XIV, studio attribution, Municipalilty of Strasbourg - FR

2017       La Dînée, Accélérateur de Particules, Strasbourg , project winner - FR

2017       Individual artistic creation (aide individuelle a la création), Grand Est region - FR

2016       Arte Laguna, Venice, installation and sculpture, finalist, jury Sabine van der Ley/ Miguel Armado - IT

2016       IEAA, Dubai (art fair),  shortlist - UAE

2015       Xerxes Sculpture Prize, Serpentine Gallery, London, selected finalist - UK

2014       Shape Open, London, finalist, jury Yinka Shonibare - UK

2014       WAC, Somerset, finalist, jury Richard Wentworth - UK

2014       Verve Sculpture Prize, London, runner-up - UK

2013       Aesthetica Magazine Art Prize, three dimensional design & sculpture, finalist - UK

2013       Design and Artists Copyright Society award - UK

2012       Aesthetica Creative Works Competition, finalist - UK

2012       Young Artists’ Prize, Galerie Quédar, Strasbourg, winner - FR

2022/ 2019/ 2018/ 2015 Les Ateliers Ouverts, ‘ Parcours Choisis’ (highlighted artist), Strasbourg - FR

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LIVE PERFORMANCES 

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2024      Invitrineous, Luis Leu gallery, Karlsruhe - GER

2023      Israstine, Syndicat Potentiel, Strasbourg - FR

2023      Chaud Time, European Biennale for Creativity, Shadok, Strasbourg - FR

2023      Abstrakte Merde,  Alter Schlachthof, Karlsruhe - GER

2023      Artists in the President's Cabinet? CLE conf. Digital Creativity (Oslo), Univ. of Oslo/ School of Advanced Study

2022     What's the matter with a bit of violence? Violence and catastrophes in an age of uncertainty, Univ. of Derby - UK

2022      Artists in the President's Cabinet #2, Ateliers Ouverts, Bastion XIV, Strasbourg - FR

2022     Why science needs metaphor (talk), DNA Our Stories, Warwick Arts Centre - UK

2021       Invitrineous, Radial gallery, Strasbourg - FR

2021       Is Populism made from Plastic? HEPP #2, University of Helsinki - FL

2021      What's the matter with politics? Emotions, Populism and Polarisation, HEPP conf., Univ. of Helskinki - FL

2021      What's the matter with politics? Democracy and Populism (in the age of covid), CAPPE, Univ. of Brighton - UK

2020     What's the matter with Art? Research in the arts the arts in research; Cultural Literacy in Europe, Univ. of Lodz

2020     What's the matter with decay? (talk), Aesthetics of Decay, LCIR, St. Anne's college, Univ. of Oxford - UK

2020     Culturgest, Anthropocene Campus Lisboa: Parallax (CIUHCT/Max Planck Inst./ HKW)

2019      What's the matter with politics?The EU and the Politicisation of Europe 8th Ed., Euroacademia, Gent - B

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EDUCATION

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2002    MA University of Nottingham - UK

2001     MA Sciences-Po, Lille - FR

2000    BA Manchester Metropolitan University - UK

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PUBLICATIONS

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2023  Is Populism made from Plastic? The Polish Journal of Aesthetics; Vol.67 (4/2022)

2023 Book chapter: 'What's the matter with a catastrophe?', Environmental Injustice and Catastrophe: How Global Insecurities Threaten the Future of Humanity', ed. by B. C. Messina; Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, ISBN 9783111081199

2022 Book chapter: What's the matter with time?', In Other Times (In anderen Zeiten)- Changing Discourses of Time across Human History,  ed. by  MPIWG Berlin, Comenius Garten Berlin; Frank & Timme Press, ISBN 9783732908288

2012 Islamic Veiling in Legal Discourse’, Routledge, ISBN 9780415533362

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REVIEWS

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Aesthetica Magazine; Aesthetica Magazine Anthology “100 Contemporary Artists”;  Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace; Routledge UK; Bergsträsser Anzieger (Germany), Coze magazine (Fr); Point Contemporain (Fr); Jewish Renaissance; Nesta UK; Versant Est; The Gaze of a Parisienne, France3

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COLLECTIONS & GRANTS

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ADAGP France

Salomon Foundation

Passions Alsace Foundation

Région Grand Est

Accélerateur des Particules

Région des Parc des Vosges du Nord

CIBR Strasbourg

Arts Council UK

Stadt Karlsruhe

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