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Introduction
As part of Leeds Metropolitan University Gallery’s support of emerging contemporary visual artists, Ben Cove has been commissioned to produce new work for Tilted, his first major solo show. Alongside this work he also presents recent paintings from 2001.
Cove’s work is multi-layered, making references both to the art world and to popular culture. He offers the viewer different levels on which to access his paintings. On the surface there is a strong emphasis on composition, with aesthetic graphic imagery and a vibrant use of colour. Yet by looking longer and deeper, these paintings are humorous, subversive and ironic. They distort and fragment perceptions.
Pop Art
Ben Cove’s work strongly alludes to the genre of Pop Art. He uses some of its concerns and approaches as a vehicle to express his own ideas and interests. Pop Art was developed in the 1950’s and 60’s by British and American artists, who began to refer to:
‘The world (that) had become colourful and glossy, full of comics and posters, lurid advertisements and record covers, food packaging and neon signs, television, films and photographs of film stars.’
Some celebrated the new, brash, consumer culture of the time, wanting to make elements of popular culture into ‘high art’ and simultaneously to make the art world more accessible. Other artists, such as Andy Warhol and Richard Hamilton, used popular imagery in order to critique or question the state of western culture.
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