Benz and Chang, “Changeling”
Exhibition runs: December 7th, 2024 – January 5th, 2025
Haven Gallery is pleased to present “Changeling”, a collection of new, haunting watercolor paintings by Oregon based artist Benz and Chang. “Changeling” represents the many states of being, both tangible and spectral, that depict the breaking or altering of space and time, merging choices of the past, present and future into one, painted materialization of life. “Changeling” further demonstrates the evolution of the artists hand as a strong presence of color and stylized expression dominate the artists known sepia, vintage palettes, to create an even more surreal and dreamy atmosphere. Lingering shadows and ghostly apparitions remind the viewer of the permanence of all our choices and relationships, Whether favored or otherwise, these experiences are woven into the framework of our own being.
Show statement:
Here we see the decisions, joys and consequences of living multiple lives, both consecutive lives and simultaneous ones. The actress portrays a sleeping vampire cat. A ghost haunts her reflection. Beatrice celebrates a birthday in the inferno. Lights out for another visit with Sister Sleep. The cat spirit might take off her mask, but might not. A few of these are pretend lives. Lives that don’t make geometric sense. Lives that have achieved a liminal state.
About Benz and Chang
Highly inspired by Victorian photography trends and vintage imagery, Benz and Chang paints spiritual figures cohorting with the living, merging the planes of life and death. A deep connection is established between his sitters, adapting the paranormal into the normal. Levitation, anthropomorphic shadow and wrapped figures extend a supernatural bridge to the viewer, connecting us to secret spaces and transforming memories of the deceased into tangible presences. Benz and Chang’s paintings serve as a channel to extend emotions of comfort and acceptance towards the more challenging and darker aspects of life. His motifs of verisimilitude suggest an overlapping of timelines and planes of existence beckoning the viewer to reconsider their own perspectives and realities.
Benz began having experiences with spirits and hauntings at an early age. These experiences have continued throughout his life. They have fueled his interest in dreams, ghosts, and clairvoyance from all angles, including the fictional, real, fraudulent, or imagined. Benz grew up in the American Southwest, and now enjoys living in the (haunted) Pacific Northwest. He has an extensive collection of odd photos from the early 20th century. Benz has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder. Chang is a fictional photography studio partner to Benz. He is a stuffed cat of the stuffed animal variety (not the taxidermy variety). Chang supplies the dark.
ARTIST STATEMENT Benz & Chang believe that the arts make the world a better place through shared experience and mutual understanding. The Benz & Chang paintings are “fake vintage photos” rendered with watercolor and/or walnut ink. They are dreamlike and figurative. Most of the paintings appear to be photos from the early 20th century, and they reward a second or third look with details that can be easy to miss. Figures appear with twins, crowns, wings, ghost limbs, halos, odd lights and shadows. Using this imagery, Benz and Chang explore transformative life experiences such as facing fear, making life-changing decisions, grieving losses, having mystical experiences, or confronting mortality. Says Benz, “I see myself as a channel. My job is to align myself with a larger creative impulse, and also with the painting itself. I must add that I rarely do this perfectly. During the various steps of making a painting, I will “see” something that belongs in the painting, and so I will add it. If the decision-making process breaks down, I consult a Magic 8-Ball for direction. The resulting paintings are dreamlike.”
