Benjamin Billingsley          

Below are examples of current work - which can be viewed in more detail by visiting the gallery pages.
Scroll down for bio, details about special projects and events, and contact info.

About the Artist

Benjamin Billingsley is a painter and printmaker living in Wilmington, North Carolina. He holds an MFA from UNCGreensboro (1995), where he studied under Walter Barker, William Collins and John Maggio.  Benjamin Billingsley has exhibited work in the Southeastern United States as well as in Estonia, Russia and in a woodcut print exhibition in Kyoto, Japan in 2011.

Ben works in a neo-expressionist mode, focusing on figurative and landscape subjects.  He favors acrylic paint, and usually paints with a palette knife.

Ben is the third generation artist and art instructor in his family.  His maternal grandfather, Robert Schellin, was a painter / printmaker / ceramicst based in Milwaukee, WI - he worked for the WPA during the Great Depression and taught art for the University of Wisconsin system for many years.  Ben's parents are Carl Billingsley (MFA, UWM) and Catherine Billingsley (MFA, ECU).  Carl is an award-winning sculptor whose work was displayed in downtown Wilmington, NC in 2008.  Catherine is a weaver specializing in large-scale tapestries.  Carl currently teaches at East Carolina University's School of Art and Design - Catherine has recently retired from teaching there. Please visit their site at http://www.billingsleyatelier.com/.

Ben has taught studio art and art history at Cape Fear Community College full-time since 2001.  In 2006 Benjamin Billingsley received the Marilyn Goodman Anderson Endowed Award for Excellence in Teaching.  (Courses taught include Drawing I and II, Painting I, Printmaking I and II, Design I, Studio, Portfolio and Resume, Art History Survey II, Survey of American Art, and Art Appreciation.) 

CONTACT THE ARTIST

Feel free to contact me at ben@benjaminbillingsley.com OR bbling71@aol.com

NOTABLE PROJECTS 

Ben is thrilled to announce the selection of his work for the covers of two forthcoming poetry collections:

Hide Behind Me by Jason Mott – hand-drawn/digitally colored cover – Main Street Rag, September 2011.
http://www.mainstreetrag.com/store/ComingSoon.php
 

Days of Dark Miracles by Daniel Nathan Terry – 21x40” woodblock print cover – Seven Kitchens Press, Editor’s Series, August 2011.
http://sevenkitchenspress.wordpress.com/forthcoming-titles/daniel-nathan-terry-days-of-dark-miracles/

Below are selected prints created during the February 2011 photogravure workshop with Unai San Martin and August 2010 collagraph workshop with Glenn Eure.

Big Print Block Party at Carolina Beach May 22, 2010 was a huge success!  Printed 4 by 8 foot woodclocks with a steamroller!  More info available from http://www.capefearpress.com 

Below is one of the prints Ben exhibited in the KIWA exhibition in Kyoto, Japan in 2011.

Below are 4 paintings included in the 12x12x122 exhibition at the BECA gallery in New Orleans - summer 2009 - Ben's first work shown in NOLA!

ANNUAL CFCC ART PROJECTS

African-American Heritage Month Art Exhibitions at CFCC

Below:  One of 5 portraits in inspired by Jacob Lawrence/ Harlem Renaissance - exhibited Feb. 2010

Below: "I May Not Get There With You" - exhibited Feb. 2009.

ARTS POETICA @ CFCC - artists respond to poetry 

Below: My response to Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "I Am Waiting."  (Central image of triptych - drypoint viscosity prints.) - exhibited April 2009

Native-American Heritage Month Art Exhibitions at CFCC 

Below:  "The Raven" 18x24" woodcut Nov. 2008 - for more information see http://cfcc.edu/nahm/  

MY INFLUENCES INCLUDE: German Expressionism (particularly the Die Brücke movement), Fauvism (especially Matisse), and Bay Area Figuration (especially Richard Diebenkorn).

Check out:
Die Brücke at http://www.bruecke-museum.de/english.htm 
Matisse at http://www.musee-matisse-nice.org/anglais/index3.html &  http://www.henri-matisse.net/index.html
Diebenkorn at http://www.diebenkorn.org/ ; http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/diebenkorn_richard.html ; http://www.artchive.com/artchive/D/diebenkorn.html ; http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/exhib_detail/98_exhib_diebenkorn.html 

CURRENT EVENTS &

UPCOMING EVENTS

Visions of Guadalupe - Group Exhibition - One Wicked Gallery, Wilmington, NC - reception 12/10/11 8:00 p.m.
http://www.onewickedgallery.com/

1x1=1 - Group Invitational Exhibition - 2TEN Haustudio, Ivanhoe, NC http://www.haustudio.com/

Upcoming exhibitions include the Cape Fear Corpsers' 5th exhibition (Bottega Gallery)

NEW PUBLICATIONS

Hide Behind Me by Jason Mott – hand-drawn/digitally colored cover – Main Street Rag, September 2011.
http://www.mainstreetrag.com/store/ComingSoon.php

Days of Dark Miracles by Daniel Nathan Terry – 21x40” woodblock print cover – Seven Kitchens Press, Editor’s Series, August 2011.
http://sevenkitchenspress.wordpress.com/forthcoming-titles/daniel-nathan-terry-days-of-dark-miracles/

RECENT EVENTS

In February 2011, Ben participated in a photogravure workshop at Cape Fear Press with instructor Unai San Martin.

Exhibitions in 2011 include:

Monsters - Collaborate Gallery, Oakland, CA
Blue and Velvety - Projekte Gallery, Wilmington, NC
Constructions - Solo Exhibition - Wilmington Wine,
   Wilmington, NC
4th Exquisite Corpse Group Exhibition - Wabi Sabi
   Warehouse, Wilmington, NC
State of the Art / Art of the State - Cameron Museum,
   Wilmington, NC
Maps (to Nevada?) – Wabi Sabi Warehouse, Wilmington,
    NC
Likeness and Light - One Wicked Gallery, Wimington, NC
Cumulonimbus - Projekte Gallery, Wilmington, NC
3rd Exquisite Corpse Group Exhibition - River Twist,
    Belville, NC
Hot off the Press: CFCC Printmakers - Projekte Gallery,
    Wilmington, NC (2^nd annual show)
16^th Annual Artist Self-Portrait Exhibition – Glenn Eure's
    Ghost Fleet Gallery, Nags Head, NC – HONORABLE
    MENTION
Kyoto International Woodprint Association 6^th Exhibition
    – Kyoto Municipal Museum, Kyoto, Japan

Special projects in 2011 include:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – exhibition organizer –
    CFCC (3^rd year)
Poetry judge CFCC’s art and literary magazine Portals (3^rd
    year)
Youth Arts Festival (participating artist/demonstrator) –
    ECU, Greenville, NC (printmaking) (7^th year)

Guest lectures in 2011 include:
Cameron Museum Docents Program – ongoing series
    since 2007
Guest Lecture – Matisse and Picasso - Wilmington Art
    Association (4^th lecture for WAA)
UNCW Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Courses –
    "Women in Art: The Path to Cassatt;" “Abstract 
    Expressionism: Method to the Madness?”   &
    “Magnificent Edifices: Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace”
UNCW – FNA102 class “Explorations in the Creative
    Process” (4^th lecture since 2008)

2010 HIGHLIGHTS -
Big Print Block Party (Carolina Beach, May 2010) – 4’x8’
    woodblocks printed with a steamroller!
Collagraph workshop with Glenn Eure at Ghost Fleet
    Gallery Nags Head, NC (08/2010)

Exhibitions:
Continuing the Form – Bottega Gallery, Wilmington, NC (1^st
    Cape Fear Corpsers’ Exquisite Corpse show)
The Dream Rocket – Brooklyn Children’s Museum,
    Brooklyn, NY, NY
The Creative Coalition, Inaugural Exhibition – Projekte
    Gallery, Wilmington, NC

 Guest lectures:
UNCW Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Courses –
    “Matisse, Picasso and their Heirs, an Overview of
    Modernism” & “Hopper to Close”
Faculty Forum: “Being Human?” – Lecturer – CFCC (2^nd
    lecture for Faculty Forum)

Special Projects:
CFCC Silent Auction for Haiti Earthquake Relief (Doctors
    Without Borders) – organizer/donor
CFCC Native American Heritage Month – Silent Auction for
    Brenda Moore Native American Student Scholarships –
    organizer/donor

2009 exhibition highlights:
Bloodline: A Billingsley Family Exhibition – Glenn
    Eure’s Ghost Fleet Gallery, Nags Head, NC
Generations : A Billingsley Family Exhibition –
    Hampton Gallery / CCA, Kinston, NC
12x12x122 - BECA Gallery New Orleans, LA 

Selections of Ben's work from the 2009 Billingsley family joint exhibitions are featured below.
Ben documented his process for these works for the "In Progress" page!

Above: Monotype featured in "Bloodline" - A Billingsley Family Exhibition @ Glenn Eure Ghost Fleet Gallery
210 E. Driftwood St. / Nags Head, NC 27959
(252) 441-6584 
Nov. 1 - Dec. 17, 2009

Above: Works by Robert Schellin flanking Ben's Passages: Estonia #1 2009 24x30", featured in "Generation" - A Billingsley Family Exhibition @ Hampton Gallery / Community Council for the Arts
400 N. Queen Street / Kinston, NC 28502
(252) 527-2517
http://www.kinstoncca.com/exhibits.html
Below - more of Ben's work from the Kinston show.