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Ben Jack Nash (1978) stems from a family of refugees from Eastern Europe who settled in London's East End immigrant community. For ten years he also worked using the law to defend those who found themselves subjugated to society's periphery - prisoners, asylum seekers, young offenders and mental health patients. In addition, a background in activism and social justice involved calling abuses of state and corporate power to account. His diverse artistic practise extends these experiences expressing the oscillating, vulnerable but also spiritual nature of marginalised identities. He observes how 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.
Lives and works in Strasbourg and London
Represented by Gallery Radial Contemporain
SOLO & DUO PROJECTS
2024 Chaud Time II, w. Johanna Nelles, Council of Europe, Strasbourg - FR
2023 Abstrakt Merde, 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
GROUP PROJECTS (selected)
2024 Commun en Commun, Marie d'Eschau, Strasbourg - FR
2024 Echo, 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
PRIZES & DISTINCTIONS
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
LIVE PERFORMANCES
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
EDUCATION
2002 MA University of Nottingham - UK
2001 MA Sciences-Po, Lille - FR
2000 BA Manchester Metropolitan University - UK
PUBLICATIONS
2024 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
REVIEWS
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
COLLECTIONS & GRANTS
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
An important feature of his works 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. 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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