Galerie Dantendorfer
BENKA
Virtual Insanity
2 September – 22 October 2021
Exhibition: Virtual Insanity
Artist: BENKA
Period: 2 September – 22 October 2021
BENKA was born in 1983 in Abu Dhabi. At the age of 12, he moved to Vienna, where he completed his entire school education. After his training in Vienna, he studied psychology and also engaged intensively with music alongside his studies. However, he discovered his passion for painting in childhood, when he painted the walls of his parents’ apartment. Since 2015, he has devoted himself entirely to painting. He finds inspiration in the works of Cy Twombly, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Pierre Soulages, and Katherine Bernhardt.
In his diploma thesis in clinical psychology, BENKA focused on the daily use of smartphones and the problem of the resulting addiction. This sparked his fascination with social phenomena, particularly the rapid development of digitalization. It motivates him to engage with these topics artistically. In his work, he interprets and comments on our relationships to social media, artificial intelligence, robotics, and the future of man-machine interfaces.
The numbers and letters in his paintings are “captchas” – tests designed to protect websites from so-called bots. These tests determine whether the user is a human or a machine. BENKA reinterprets captchas, transforming them in his art into a symbol of artistic exploration.
Characteristic of his work is the large format of his canvases and the use of diverse materials – he mixes acrylic, oil, pastel, and spray paint on a single canvas. Each work begins with pre-designed numbers and letters (captchas) on the canvas. Only afterward does free brushwork, disorder, and abstraction enter. He himself describes his art as “organic chaos.” In our exhibition VIRTUAL INSANITY, we present a comprehensive insight into the artist’s work and his critique of the virtual madness of our time.
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