186. Ben Jamie - Aperture i

2026
Acrylic, charcoal, sand and heavy gel on flax mounted on plywood
12.7 x 17.78 x 2cm

Ben Jamie’s practice delves into the depths of human emotion, using paint as a conduit to explore themes of impermanence, memory, and the human condition. His imagery is often veiled, ambiguous, and psychologically charged, inviting viewers to construct their own interpretations and narratives. Hovering between figuration and abstraction, the paintings occupy an uncertain and shifting space where forms emerge, dissolve, and reappear through layered surfaces and atmospheric gestures.

Drawing from personal experience, historical reference, and introspective observation, Jamie creates enigmatic works that evoke states of transition, melancholy, and emotional resonance. Through restrained palettes, obscured imagery, and accumulations of paint, his practice explores the instability of perception and the fragility of memory, allowing meaning to remain open and unresolved.

Jamie completed the Turps Art School Painters Studio Programme (2016), following a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Painting at the University of Gloucestershire (2002) and studies at L’École Cantonale d’Art du Valais, Switzerland (2001).

Solo exhibitions include Deep Time at James Freeman Gallery, London (2026); Realm at Castor, London (2023); Threshold at Castor, London (2022); And Other Withered Stumps of Time at Castor, London (2021); Boon at Mrs Rick’s Cupboard, Primary, Nottingham (2018); Already Not Yet at Shrine, New York (2018); Comfortably Dumb at Castor, London (2018); Problem, Reaction, Solution at Unit 9 Gallery, London (2017); and Sense Data at Castor, London (2016).

Selected group exhibitions include Flat Volume at A.P.T Gallery, London (2025); Slipping The Veil at St Bartholomew’s Church, London (2025); Post Post War at OHSH Projects, London (2023); Blake’s Old Haunt at Hercules Road, London (2023); There’s A Real World Outside at A Horse With No Name Gallery, Ostend, Belgium (2022); Dream Baby Dream at Fitzrovia Gallery, London (2022); Always Winter at Brooke Bennington, London (2021); Habitual at Castor, London (2020); To Paint The Gloom Itself at Terrace Gallery, London (2020); British Painting 2019 at Space K, Gwacheon, South Korea (2019); The Rude Gesture at Unit 1 Gallery, London (2016); Turps Final Show at The Bermondsey Project, London (2016); and the John Moores Painting Prize 2016 exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2016), where he was awarded a prize.

His work is held in collections including Space K, Gwacheon, South Korea.