Contemporary sculptor Ben Foster draws upon the physical landscape of his New Zealand-based home, with his abstract figurative works and kinetic sculptures mirroring the dramatic surroundings of the Kaikoura mountains and sea. Foster’s artistic practice serves as a vehicle through which he explores human interactions with the land and animals with which we share our lives and spaces.
BIOGRAPHY
The stark geometry of Foster’s sculptural practice reveals the artist’s ongoing quest for achieving perfection. Shaping familiar objects into smooth, generic beings, Foster’s works resist any psychological insight. Foster’s sculptures accomplish a subtle balance between static form and motion, ingeniously culminating the natural and the manmade. Throughout his practice, Foster distils forms to an essential core, realigning manufactured structures with their natural origins.
Through his consideration of anatomy and form, Foster delineates essential features while obscuring detail, allowing abstract approximations to stand in for the nuance of curve and organic shapes. Foster expertly extracts vital details and often communicates them through geometric facets. The angular exteriors and unfamiliar surfaces of polygon structures strip away any individual monumentality, yet ensure the works retain their sculptural focus. Foster’s works are convincing, embodying their animality while avoiding sentimentality.
Testament to Foster’s technical expertise and skilled craftsmanship, the high level of finish in his work comes from a strong engineering focus in his practice, which sees him take inspiration from industrial components resulting in sleek pared back forms. Foster’s organically inspired aluminium and stainless steel sculptures are dynamic, tactile and elegant. In his more recent work, the linear planes imply the design of digital CAD models and the art of origami; suggesting these works could be molded from resin or even folded from paper.
SOLO EXHIBTIONS
2019
Club de Bâle, Basel, Switzerland
Sanderson Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
2016
Spectrum, Sanderson Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
2014
Nexus, Sanderson Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
2013
Continuum, Sanderson Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
Ben Foster Sculpture Studio, Kaikoura, New Zealand
2011
Momentum, Sanderson Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021
Tai Tapu Sculpture Park, Christchurch, New Zealand
Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, Warkworth, New Zealand
2019
Tai Tapu Sculpture Park, Christchurch, New Zealand
Auckland Art Fair, Auckland, New Zealand
2018
‘One Night With…’ MARS Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Summer Showcase, Sanderson Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
Sampler, Sanderson Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
2017
Tai Tapu Sculpture Park, Christchurch, New Zealand
2016
What We Make of It, MTG Public Art Gallery, Napier, New Zealand
Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, Warkworth, New Zealand
Tai Tapu Sculpture Park, Christchurch, New Zealand
2015
Fusion, P-Art, Ibiza, Spain
Flora & Fauna, Millennium Public Art Gallery, Blenheim, New Zealand
Sculpture on the Peninsula, Banks Peninsula, New Zealand
Headland Sculpture on the Gulf, Waiheke Island, New Zealand
Tai Tapu Sculpture Park, Christchurch, New Zealand
2014
Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne, Australia
Art in a Garden, Canterbury, New Zealand
Tai Tapu Sculpture Park, Christchurch, New Zealand
Sculpture in the Lanes, Sanderson Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
2013
Sculpture in the Gardens, Auckland, New Zealand
Auckland Art Fair, Auckland, New Zealand
Advent, Sanderson Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
2012
Advent, Sanderson Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
Sculpture in the Garden, Christchurch, New Zealand
NZ Sculpture OnShore, Auckland, New Zealand
Sculpture and Object, Sanderson Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
Art in a Garden, Canterbury, New Zealand
Shapeshifter, Wellington, New Zealand
2011
Laisee, Koru Contemporary Art, Hong Kong
Advent, Sanderson Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
Sculpture on the Peninsula, Banks Peninsula, New Zealand
Art in a Garden, Canterbury, New Zealand
Locale, Sanderson Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
Auckland Art Fair, Auckland, New Zealand
12 Walls, Sanderson Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
Sculpture in Central Otago, Wanaka, New Zealand