Ben Hartley is an eco-anxious artist based in Bristol. Concerned with the environmental impact of the art world and it’s obsession with material perfection. Believing perfection to be a wholly unsustainable concept, Ben believes the rejection of it constitutes a radical act. Ben’s practice attempts to produce a sustainable approach to art making, using waste materials from the ever-expanding mass of indigestible rubbish from our capitalist society scavenged from the actual and virtual explorations of pre-apocalyptic urban space. These disparate materials are moulded by Ben into sculptural collages, two-dimensional and digital explorations, resisting the temptation of permanence, using inherently ephemeral methods such as fastening, tying and folding.

Ben graduated with a degree in Art & Visual Culture from the University of the West of England in 2019. He is currently a studio holder and associate member at The Artist Project Space.