The Arts & Culture Journal

There are only a few artists who can leap out and grab your attention and manage to sustain that draw for any duration past that initial pull. Benjamin Buckley is one of those artists.

Benjamin is a London-based artist with a style so distinct that his work is powerfully engaging and forever memorable. Flat, two-colour backgrounds burst out of the canvas grabbing the viewer by the throat and demanding attention. The pictures then refuse to loose their grip as you are taken in by the contrasting complexity of the foreground subjects.

Benjamin's work offer a wonderful insight into the clash of cultures that globalisation has created. Eclectic concoctions of Eastern and Western architecture are cast together in mesmerising constructions. And brash, neon, car wash signs are layered atop thatched shelters.

Yet this work offers a more important gift for the viewer - the power of imagination. Benjamin's work cannot exist in the real world and in that it finds its very purpose. As Benjamin explains:"I know that the paintings will never become a reality and that’s why they are produced, they give imagination more body."

This 'Projective Drawing' gives the artist total freedom. He is only restricted by the wilds of his imagination. Benjamin describes this spirit wonderfully as 'embedded daydreams' and these works are a great testament to the creativity of the artist.