Diploma Pickup! Reminder.
Slemmons Gallery
July 19, 2026 - September 20th, 2026
Hey folks, I submitted a new title and exhibition statement last night. I hope that the email-body-as-wall-text doesn't come across as (overly) facetious or oblique (it is meant to be a little bit facetious, of course (maybe funny?)). I found it very difficult to not treat a text which will be physically present in the space of the exhibition with the work as being diegetic/metafictional, so I reformulated the show concept a bit to accommodate the idea of having such a text in the space, and I think it could possibly even work well (the paintings/work I'm including could all be construed as taking on a certain self-congratulatory-ness or self-indulgence/post-MFA-ness explicitly as subject matter (I wouldn't say that the work is autobiographical, maybe tailored-autobiographical, or maybe rather that its subject matter is "autobiography" (but we could be splitting hairs here), or else “the conditions of production”, or else that: "Freedom is the obligation to freedom, since the rejection of freedom is an exercising of freedom."). Let me know if it is in fact too oblique/facetious, and I could try to find a way to squeeze a bit more exegeticity in there by later today, or else we could probably supplement/replace it with this email-body instead.
Thanks and sorry for being slow and a pain!
Benjamin
Benjamin Holmes is a painter living in Chicago (b. 1998, Canada). He received his MFA in painting from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 2026, and an MA in Contemporary Art Practice from The Royal College of Art (UK) in 2023.
RSVP for the opening reception on Sunday, July 19th from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the link below:
RSVP for the closing reception on Sunday, September 20th from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the link below:
Click HERE for more information on gallery hours and private appointments.
Diploma Pickup! Reminder.
Slemmons Gallery
July 19, 2026 - September 20th, 2026
Hey folks, I submitted a new title and exhibition statement last night. I hope that the email-body-as-wall-text doesn't come across as (overly) facetious or oblique (it is meant to be a little bit facetious, of course (maybe funny?)). I found it very difficult to not treat a text which will be physically present in the space of the exhibition with the work as being diegetic/metafictional, so I reformulated the show concept a bit to accommodate the idea of having such a text in the space, and I think it could possibly even work well (the paintings/work I'm including could all be construed as taking on a certain self-congratulatory-ness or self-indulgence/post-MFA-ness explicitly as subject matter (I wouldn't say that the work is autobiographical, maybe tailored-autobiographical, or maybe rather that its subject matter is "autobiography" (but we could be splitting hairs here), or else “the conditions of production”, or else that: "Freedom is the obligation to freedom, since the rejection of freedom is an exercising of freedom."). Let me know if it is in fact too oblique/facetious, and I could try to find a way to squeeze a bit more exegeticity in there by later today, or else we could probably supplement/replace it with this email-body instead.
Thanks and sorry for being slow and a pain!
Benjamin
Benjamin Holmes is a painter living in Chicago (b. 1998, Canada). He received his MFA in painting from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 2026, and an MA in Contemporary Art Practice from The Royal College of Art (UK) in 2023.
RSVP for the opening reception on Sunday, July 19th from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the link below:
RSVP for the closing reception on Sunday, September 20th from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the link below:
Click HERE for more information on gallery hours and private appointments.
