Ben Coode-Adams
One of the most active artists and artistic producers in the East of England, Ben is as civic as his artwork is iconic, and involved with many creative projects and organisations, first and foremost among them the artist collective, Blackwater Polytechnic.
Ben Coode-Adams is an Essex-based artist and farmer who grows blackcurrants and grapes on his family's farm, where he built his home and studio (the subject of a 2010 UK 'Grand Designs' programme). He studied Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art, and holds an MA in Art and Architecture from the University of East London. The bedrock of his practice is designing and making sculptures from forged and fabricated steel, commissioned by housing associations, local authorities and private clients for public spaces and developed through engagement with local communities. Alongside this he has always made drawings, and since 2013 has increasingly worked in watercolour: he was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize (2008) and the Sunday Times Watercolour Prize (2016), and won the Royal Watercolour Society Prize in 2018. He has exhibited internationally, including in Berlin, Mainz and Brooklyn, New York. With his wife, the artist Freddie Robins, he co-founded the Blackwater Polytechnic, a creative collective near Coggeshall dedicated to promoting Essex artists, and he chairs the Victor Batte-Lay Foundation, which owns the Minories Art Gallery in Colchester.
Artist Statement
My painting is a unique journey into the spirit world, from which a myriad of spectral figures emerge onto the canvas. Veils of vibrant colour converge and fluctuate, spun from the netherworld where truth and beauty reside. I bring a damp, ancient, magical psycho-folk wind to the canvas, the heady breath of the bosky mire. I play with faeries, sprites, and spirits, embracing the pink, shiny, glittery, massive scary teeth and truly awesome power of death-wielding elementals. It's not always a serene walk in the woods, but it's a journey I invite you to join me on.