James Benjamin Franklin

Kindly donated by the artist and Broadway, New York and Reyes Finn, Detroit

James Benjamin Franklin (b. 1972, Tacoma, Washington, lives and works in Detroit, MI.). Franklin’s custom constructed shapes and assorted collage of textures combine to form a style that is untethered by traditional narrative. Shape, texture, and palate flow into one another overlap, and expand in dynamic compositions liberated from the confines of a canvas. The forms became ungainly, even awkward, but are no less vibrant and exciting for it. Their lack of balance implies a kineticism and propulsion echoed in their push into three dimensions.

Beginning with signature asymmetrical structures devised to force a rupture with the constraints of the rectangle Franklin has sought to continuously free himself from habits and conventions that would hinder his search for an unpredictable mark. Built from plaster-treated polyurethane panels set in artist-built epoxy frames the surface is laid with segments of cut fabric carpeting and found blankets which provoke the initial composition. This base layer is then augmented with multiple applications of acrylic paint that is sprayed poured and hand-brushed and finished with scatterings of sand and glitter. The variety of application and material provides a disarmingly wide spectrum of texture and effect that both telegraphs the complexity of the process and slyly covers its tracks.

The work engages a dialogue that questions the nature and expressive potential of creativity — how our subrational responses dominate decision making, how our trust in them opens up creative possibilities to expose not only the power of our intuition, but our vulnerability to it. Viewers are encouraged to meditate on the basic framework of craft, exposing evidence of his process – layers, splatters, drips, the underlying structure - in plain sight.

Franklin received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2017. Recent solo exhibitions include "W H I L E A W A Y,” BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY (2023); “Full Circle,” Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI (2023); “A Layered Approach” KMAC Louisville, KY (2021); “Framed In Memory,” Proyectos Monclova, CDMX (2021); “Whole In The Dust,” Reyes | Finn, Detroit, MI (2019).His work has also been included in group exhibitions at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; and the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS.

Artistic influences include Shirley Jaffe, Thornton Dial, Richard Diebenkorn, Philomé Obin, and Agnes Martin among others.