Benjamin Louria - Government Issue Savior

Benjamin Louria

I am originally from Michigan. I have a degree in Visual Communications for Illustration from the Colorado Institute of Art in Denver Co. I am predominantly self taught as a painter, though I have attended classes at the Arts Students League of New York. My work is largely illustrative in style. I created a word that sums up this style and that word is “Satirealism”. Illustrative realism in approach and handling of the medium and satirical in subject matter, having been heavily influenced by the Low Brow or Pop Surrealism movements. Every painting starts with an idea. If I get a “vision” of a painting and that vision make me laugh, I am compelled to act on it. Humor and satire are the binding threads that tie all of my paintings together. If I complete a painting and the viewer laughs or at least gets a reaction, then I know the painting is a success. I have always drawn. I taught my self drawing by reading and collecting comics. Consequently my figures still have an illustrative make up to them. Slightly over pronounced musculature permeate my figurative work, though I have tried to minimize this. In school my grades suffered, for it, as I would spend all day drawing my little comic books or posters. I can’t actually count all the unicorns I drew in the 80’s (a great way to talk to the ladies).