Benjamin Work  

b. 1979, Tāmaki-makau-rau, Auckland

Benjamin Work is an artist, Auckland-born, with Tongan and Scottish heritage. He has a solid grounding in aerosol painting with his initial creative output centred around sub/ pop-cultural influences that emerged from North America in the 1970s – 1980s.

Since then, Benjamin’s bold visual language reference design elements and semiotics particular to Tongan weaponry and culture. His practice extends across a diverse range of projects which include gallery exhibitions, large scale murals, print based media and photography. His work reflects the ‘here and now’ and engages with the current cultural, political and social context of Auckland, Aotearoa.
Work has exhibited in a number of group and solo exhibitions.

Selected Exhibitions

  • 2019  Auckland Art Fair – Bergman Gallery [solo]           
                       Art in the dark II, Me’a’ofa Gallery, Nuku’alofa, Tonga  [group]
  • 2018  Write it on the land, seal it on the heart, Te Tuhi Gallery, Auckland
                      MPA#1, Bergman Gallery, Rarotonga, Cook Islands [group]
  • 2017  Whenua Fonua 'Enua, Malcolm Smith Gallery, Auckland  [solo]
                      Return to Havaiki, Bergman Gallery, Rarotonga, Cook Islands  [solo]
                      Post Graffiti Pacific, TSB Wallace Arts Trust, Auckland  [group]
  • 2016 The Glorious Children of Te Tumu, Corbans Art Estate, Auckland  [solo]
                      For King and Country, Bergman Gallery, Rarotonga, Cook Islands  [solo]                               The Glorious Children of Te Tumu - Salisbury Int. Arts Festival, England [solo]
                      METfriday , The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, USA  [group]
  • 2015  Ma'ae Tu'i o e Fonua, Māngere Arts Centre, Auckland  [solo]
                      PGP , AMbush Gallery, Sydney, Australia [group]
                     Toutoutā, Olivia Laita Gallery, Auckland [solo]
  • 2014  I see red, I see red, I see red, FRESH Gallery Ōtara, Auckland  [solo]
                      Tauhi Vā, FRESH Gallery Ōtara, Auckalnd [group]
  • 2013  If These Walls Could Talk, TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre [group]
                      Serigraph show, Olivia Laita Gallery, Auckland [group]           
                      Graffiato , The Storehouse, Taupo [group]
  • 2012  No'o Fakataha , Mangere Arts Centre, Auckland [group]
                      What would Jim Do , FRESH Gallery Ōtara, Auckland [group]
  • 2011   Primary Flight , ART Basel Miami, USA [group]


Selected Collections

  • TSB Wallace Arts Trust , Auckland, NZ
  • Paenga Hira Auckland Museum, NZ
  • Welt Museum, Vienna, Austria

Artist in Residency
 CMBB Para Site International Art Residency (PS IAR),  2019,  Hong Kong

Publications
Whenua Fonua 'Enua  2017 Published by RIM Books
ISBN 978-0-473-41566-2

Using Format