Benjamin Aitken Hard Yakka

20 October –
10 November 2018
Hard Yakka
Benjamin Aitken

Hard Yakka

, 2018
Installation view

‘The interface of an Australian posturing around work ethic and the derogatory implications of artists’ lifestyles sets the tone for Ben Aitken’s latest body of work, presented at Sutton Projects. With a painter’s eye to composition and a tradesperson’s honouring of labour, Aitken weaves together a ‘yeah-nah’ attitude with a semi-fetishised material acuity. Object, image and text are put to play in his work, blurring divisions between high and low, art and design, the artist’s hand and the found object. A desire to unlock complex notions of identity, and the authorship of clichéd colloquialism and anonymous digital communications, propels Aitken’s assemblages of form and meaning’. – Dr. Kent Wilson

Born in Melbourne in 1991, Ben Aitken is an artist whose work focuses on text, appropriation and humour. Recent solo exhibitions include An artist of some description, ALASKA Projects, Sydney, 2018; Collaboratory (with Jon Cattapan), La Trobe Art Institute, Benidgo, 2018; and Alternative Literature is also like Alternative Literature, Bayside Arts and Cultural Centre, Melbourne, 2016. Aitken was a finalist in the 2018 Archibald Prize and Highly Commended in the 2014 Black Swan Prize for Portraiture. His work is held in public and private collections Australia wide, including the Michael and Janet Buxton Family Collection, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Lismore Regional Gallery.

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