Gallery 1: Monochrome, Joel Brown with guest artist Onaje Benjamin

Monochrome, a two person show of ceramics and photography featuring BAU artist, Joel Brown and invited guest artist, Onaje Benjamin.

Joel Brown’s ceramic pieces reflect his architectural background. But after many years of building design and construction, he is drawn to the immediacy of work in clay. Brown is inspired by antique skeleton watches, where the appearance of the mechanism is as important as the engraving on the case. The surfaces of his pieces are achieved by wood firings through the action of flame and ash. The kilns, based on ancient Japanese models, are stoked around the clock by teams for as long as a week, reaching over two thousand degrees.

Guest artist Onaje Benjamin is a humanist documentary photographer. His creative process involves monochromatic interpretations of the intrinsic aspects of life. The streets are structural and functional palettes upon which lights, shadows, reflections, and colors blend to shape our perceptions, ideas, and beliefs.

His camera is an extension of his inner creative vision and imagination. He seeks confirmation of his existence and that of the social beings with whom he shares this sphere called earth. He uses the lens as a tool to interpret beauty, social tensions, and conflict, or as a weapon to challenge and violate our personal spaces.