Benedict Drew was born in Kyneton, Australia in 1977, immigrating with his family to the UK at the age of one. Drew's multimedia practice encompasses video, sculpture, music, and associated technologies, his large-scale installations often concerned with ecstatic responses to socio-political anxiety and environmental issues. Represented by Matt's Gallery, in east London, since graduating from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2011 (where he now lectures), Drew has exhibited extensively in the UK and abroad; commissions for public spaces include videos for Art on the Underground and Focal Point Gallery, Southend.
Artist Benedict Drew was born in Kyneton, Australia in 1977, immigrating with his family to the UK at the age of one. Drew spent his childhood in Canterbury, Kent, where his mother ran a gallery, reflecting that, 'I was brought up around amazing art, it was like a family trade'. He studied for a BA in Fine Arts at Middlesex University (1996-99) before completing an MFA at the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2009-11) where he now lectures. In 2012, the year after graduating, Drew immediately received notable gallery exposure in London, where his solo shows included Slow Boat: Summer 2012, Chisenhale Gallery (a collaboration between Chisenhale and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, in partnership with the Canal & Rivers Trust); The Glass Envelope, Zabludowicz Collection, and Gliss, Cell Project Space.
Drew's multimedia practice encompasses video, sculpture, music, and associated technologies, combined to create large-scale installations often concerned with ecstatic responses to socio-political anxiety and environmental issues. Exploring the psychedelic potential of music and art, his often anarchic installations are intended as an escape route from, and a critical response to, what he refers to as ‘the horrors of the modern world.’ In KAPUT, acquired by the Arts Council and exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool in 2015, Drew reflects on society’s uncertain relationship with technology by exploring the concept of space tourism, using a combination of video, audio and sculptural elements. Beneath a large, fluorescent image of Richard Branson – who founded Virgin Galactic, the first commercial company committed to civilian space travel – Virgin spacecrafts soar across two screens, a foil backdrop flickers, and the room buzzes with the sound of feedback, accompanied by the joyous sound of a saxophone. Psychedelic colours and music combine to create an environment that appears to be straight from the artist’s imagination. Drew explains that: 'KAPUT considers how the once utopian idea of space tourism was lost to the ultimate oligarch adventure, fronted by Virgin Galactic. Much in the same way, from the 17th century onwards, the European Grand Tour offered a tourism experience that could only be appreciated by the privileged, wealthy few. KAPUT proposes an alternative; to self-oscillate into a trance, to trust in the visions – there is knowledge in the visions – and to travel the inner spaceways' (Benedict Drew, Walker Art Gallery, 2015). Other solo exhibitions have included The Saw Tooth Wave, Centre for Contemporary Art, Derry (2016-17) and The Trickle-Down Syndrome, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2017), the artist's most ambitious public presentation in the UK to date. The installation, comprising five connected yet distinct spaces, draws on wide-ranging references, from Hollywood director Busby Berkley’s 1930s stage-sets to the Surrealist landscapes of painter Max Ernst, continuing Drew's exploration into materiality, where the physical and digital meet. Through a dizzying array of vividly coloured screens, experimental compositions, large-scale banners, a tiered stage and an accompanying audio narrative, these elements come together to take visitors on an emotional and sensory journey. The title refers to a 1980s economic term suggesting that benefits for the wealthy will eventually trickle down to the rest of society. Drew imagines its effects using hand-drawn motifs, sculptures and kaleidoscopic projections. For Drew: 'The work contains a sense of the handmade, idiosyncratic, provisional and fantastical. I am interested in the feeling of submersion in social and environmental despair, being overwhelmed by images, confused by the shifting status of objects, disoriented by layers of history, trying to generate a state of being where you can escape, and seeing escape as a potent form of resistance, ecstatic protest' (Benedict Drew, Whitechapel Gallery, 2017).
Drew has also participated in numerous group exhibitions across the UK including Baltic 39, Newcastle (2014), The British Art Show 8, Hayward Gallery, London, which toured to Leeds, Edinburgh, Norwich and Southampton in 2015-16, and Towner International, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne (2020). Drew's commissioned video works for public spaces include: Focal Point Gallery, Southend (2014), Art on the Underground, London (2015) and Science Gallery, King's College, London (2019). In addition, Drew composes and performs music and has released several records including Crawling Through Tory Slime (MANA Records, 2017) and The Ughhh Ballads (Bloxham Tapes, 2019), regularly collaborating with other artists and musicians. He is represented by Matt's Gallery, founded by South African émigré, Robin Klassnik OBE in his east London studio in 1979, now one of London's oldest artist run spaces. Benedict Drew lives and works in Whitstable and Margate.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Benedict Drew]
Publications related to [Benedict Drew] in the Ben Uri Library