Ben Reeves

Ben Reeves (born 1969) is a Canadian contemporary artist whose paintings reflect his experience of the West Coast of Canada. He lives and paints in Tsawwassen, a suburb outside of Vancouver. He works from imagination and memory to depict semi-photographic, impressionistic, often suburban spaces that border on representation and abstraction.

Early life and career Reeves was born in Vancouver, B.C. At the age of 16, he was given a copy of a book on the Group of Seven, Joan Murray's The Best of the Group of Seven, and found the work of Tom Thomson in particular a revelation. He grew up in the Lynn Valley on the north shore of Vancouver. From 1987 to 1989, he attended Simon Fraser University in Vancouver for his first and second year arts and sciences, then switched to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver where he received his BFA in 1993. In 1995, he received his MFA from at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, England.

He was a lecturer at the University of British Columbia from 2002 to 2003. From 2006 to 2011, he was an assistant professor and from 2011, an associate professor at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. From 2023, he has worked as associate dean in the Faculty of Visual Art and Material Practice in the Audain Faculty of Art and on the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Emily Carr University.

Work Reeves has several bodies of work. He investigates subjects from life or his imagination such as views of the street through rain on a windowpane, a snowstorm through fogged lenses, or sights of a person through puffs of cigarette smoke;

Reeves is represented by the Equinox Gallery in Vancouver and by the Nicholas Metivier Gallery in Toronto.

Selected exhibitions 1993: AMS Gallery, University of British Columbia 2004: High Points: Canadian Contemporary Art, Ten Years of Acquisitions, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, QC 2006: Open Studios, Toronto, ON (two person exhibition with Shary Boyle) 2020: Valley Nights, Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto.

Selected public collections Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, ON National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, BC Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC