BEN HORTON

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Ben Horton has never had a social media account but has been asked to do solo art shows in cities around the world. Despite his notoriety, Ben is unaffected and down-to-earth. There’s an awareness in the work that we’re all a part of the world around us, while simultaneously being confronted by our abuse of this world. He’s the kind of artist we need desperately right now — to mirror our ugliness and to illustrate what’s worth preserving. Ben’s work consists mostly of people and animals created from ink, graphite, oil pastel, acrylic and mixed media, on wood, canvas or paper, and is impeccably detailed; his draftsmanship intricate, including shading with hatching and cross-hatching. His fine line is beautifully rendered, giving the feeling of awe for his subject matter, reminiscent of scientific illustrations by early explorers thoroughly chronicling each detail. Horton’s people show a mid-20th-century hopefulness mixed with desperation. Sometimes smiling confidently, though their face has a hole in it, or they have a wind-up mechanism in their back that questions their sophistication. Others might be addressing the viewer, which the artist hand-letters, such as a man in a gas mask saying, “It’s not you, it’s me.”

He recently took some time away from the studio to collect notebooks of ideas and thoughts written and sketched while traveling and living abroad over the past fifteen years. With these notebooks as reference, he began new work. Since Ben lives and works in Hong Kong, the gallery has granted him a special artist-in-residence to create work for this exhibition directly in the space.

“Absence is a range of artwork examining social aspects of human societies. Specifically, the build-up and breakdown of our systems, classes, economies, and policies, along with the toll these processes take on us and all living things.”                                                                               

  —Ben Horton, March 2026 

About Ben Horton:

 Ben is a mixed media artist working mostly with ink and acrylic paint on backgrounds collaged with found paper items from the past. His artwork has shown in galleries around the world including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, Liverpool, Montreal, Tokyo, Shanghai, & São Paulo. Ben has been a part of RVCA's Artist Network Program since 2003. He has also worked in the skateboard industry for over 30 years with various brands including Vans, and recently launched a new skateboard company; Glass House. Ben currently resides between Hong Kong & San Diego.