
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Ben Godward is at home with bright colors and exotic shapes. The New York sculptor has for some time been producing boldly optic, resolutely asymmetrical pieces that render impressions of roiling urban excess into freewheeling mixed media, abundantly featuring foam, urethane resin, and Day-Glo hues. Much of his work’s appeal has resided in its swaggering abandon, which was no doubt derived, to some extent, from the cheerful sneer and boundless energy of the young artist. Judging by his new grabber of a show “2.5-D Realities and Tchotchkes” at Bushwick’s SLAG Gallery, Godward has lost none of the verve but some of the snideness.

It has yielded not to bland earnestness — never that — but to more controlled contemplation. Now making abstract wall-sculptures-cum-paintings, Godward has segued from his relatively loose and anarchical comfort zone to the spatial rigor of the grid. The newfound discipline evident in the visual art is rooted in an exacting process, though one that balances the finiteness of the picture plane with the freedom of liquid. Pouring the resin into a thin cavity between the two large rectangular plates in a five-sided Plexiglas box, Godward regulates the direction and density of each iteration of resin by timing his pour according to its viscosity, which varies over the course of several minutes. The results are visually striking but never incoherent.


“Ben Godward: 2.5-D Reality and Tchotchkes,” curated by Irina Protopopescu. SLAG Gallery, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY. Through December 18, 2016.
Related posts:
Ben Godward’s exploded view
Catalogue essay: COVER THE EARTH by Stephen Maine
Resolution and dissolution at once: Angelina Gualdoni at Asya Geisberg
There is something about resin that is like candy and so yummy. Nice to see an artist using some expression with this medium. To much resin work tends to be slick and dead emotionally.