Benjamin Billingsley          

Wilmington, NC
ph: 910-200-7579

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"The Creative Coalition: Projekte's Inaugural Exhibition" Opening Reception/Grand Opening:  Saturday July 31, 6 til late! - Corner of 3rd and Castle - see you there!

Puppet Parlour @ ACME (5th St. W'ton) - puppet-themed art exhibition.  Puppet Festival Opening Saturday 17 July 11am-2pm & Fourth Friday Gallery Night Friday 23 July 6-9pm

Welcome to http://benjaminbillingsley.com!  Below are a few 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 Wlimington, 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 and Russia.

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.)  Please visit CFCC's online galleries of student artwork at http://cfcc.edu/hfa/artgalleries.php.

SPECIAL 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/  

CONTACT THE ARTIST

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

 

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 

NOTABLE PROJECTS 

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


  

Below are 2 large woodcuts featured in Bottega's "Achromatics" Exhibition, March 24 - May 16, 2009.  Each is 24x36".  My largest woodcuts prior to the Big Print Block Party in May 2010!

 

My first encaustic paintings (2009)

 

 

Most recent still life painting (a subject I love but don't often work with) - Irises and Chrysanthemums - acrylic on canvas 2008

CURRENT EVENTS 

Puppet Parlour @ ACME (5th St. W'ton) - puppet-themed art exhibition.  Puppet Festival Opening Saturday 17 July 11am-2pm & Fourth Friday Gallery Night Friday 23 July 6-9pm

UPCOMING EVENTS

"The Creative Coalition: Projekte's Inaugural Exhibition" Opening Reception/Grand Opening:  Saturday July 31, 6 til late! - Corner of 3rd and Castle - see you there! 

Collagraph Worshop - August - Glenn Eure's Ghost Fleet Gallery in Nags Head.

RECENT EVENTS

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

 

Ben is exhibiting work in "Sense of Place II" at Glenn Eure's Ghost Fleet Gallery in Nags Head thru July 18 

"20/20: Filters of Light and Insight" @ Acme - info greypascal@live.com

Solo show "Full Bodied" at Wilmington Wine May-June 2010

"Arts Anonymous" exhibition June - Moore County Arts Council 

"Artists / Proof" - An exhibition of work by Ben and his CFCC printmaking students - Parallelogram, W'ton

April 8th - Ben was one of four speakers in the Spring Faculty Forum - "Being Human" - art as a necessary function of human evolution.  (May end up on local cable education channel!)

April 8th - Ben was one of four speakers in the Spring Faculty Forum - "Being Human" - art as a necessary function of human evolution.  (May end up on local cable education channel!)

Ben truly enjoyed teaching "From Hopper to Close" for the UNCW Osher Lifelong Learning program (Olli) in March.  This fall he'll teach "Matisse and Picasso" - can't wait!

Other events in March 2010 - Ben presented a lecture as part of UNCW's CRW "Explorations in the Creative Process" course, attended the FATE conference at UNCW, and participated in East Carolina's Youth Arts Festival (for the fifth consecutive year)!

Ben spoke as part of the CFCC  Martin Luther King committee's African-American Heritage Month celebration on Feb. 25.  Topic - Harlem Renaissance artists! 

In 2009, the Billingsley family exhibited work together in two exhibitions (details below) - their first joint exhibitions since 1999! 
Ben exhibited figurative works in the Nags Head show - including selections from a new series of monotypes.
He exhibited architectural-themed work in the Kinston exhibition, including a new series (2009) inspired by his study abroad trip to Estonia (in 1994).  Selections of Ben's work from both shows 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


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.




 

Fall 2009 Exhibition:  Wilmington Art Association Gallery "Special Event - Aug. 28 - Sept. 24 - Places I Remember, landscapes by Benjamin Billingsley"
616 B Castle St. (910) 343-4370
http://www.wilmington-art.org/gallery.html


Above: Graystone Inn / Bridgers Mansion (1/10) 2009 (one of three new 18x24" woodcuts created especially for the WAA exhibition - see the others on the "In Progress" page!) - "Places I Remember" featured acrylic landscape paintings of urban and rural areas in and around Wilmington, NC as well as relief (woodcut and linocut) prints of downtown Wilmington, New Orleans, and Ben's former home, Greensboro, NC.

Summer 2009 Exhibitions -

12x12x122 - BECA Gallery New Orleans, LA

Arts Anonymous - Moore County Arts Council Campbell House Galleries Southern Pines, NC

March 24 - May 16, 2009 - "Achromatics: an exhibition in black and white" at Bottega Gallery.

Self Portraits– Glenn Eure’s Ghost Fleet Gallery, Nags Head, NC 

April - Arts Poetica Exhibition and Auction (Leo M. Hodson Medical Fund) - CFCC LRC

February 2009 - Black History Month - CFCC Art Exhibition in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King

January 17, 2009 - "Foundations" Exhibition at Bottega Gallery 

November 2008 - Native American Heritage Month - Please see our art exhibition online at http://cfcc.edu/nahm/ 

Dec. 7, 2008, 2 pm - Ben spoke at the Artists in the Galleries Series at the Cameron Art Museum www.cameronartmuseum.com

October 27 - November 17, 2008 - Solo exhibition at Fayetteville Technical Community College.  Reception Oct 31.  Artist's Lecture Sat. Nov. 15 at 5:30 p.m.

Ben's work was featured in a salon exhibition graciously hosted by poet Lavonne J. Adams in her home - August 7, 2008. 

Benjamin Billingsley, painter, art, painting, Wilmington, NC, North Carolina, acrylic, landscape, figure, print, printmaking, Catherine Billingsley, Carl Billingsley, UNCG, CFCC

All images and content Copyright Benjamin Billingsley. All rights reserved.

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Wilmington, NC
ph: 910-200-7579