Wainscott, NY – Tripoli Gallery is pleased to present Found Life, its second solo exhibition with Brooklyn based artist Benjamin Keating. On view from May 28th through June 27th, 2022, there will be an opening reception for the Artists on Sunday, May 29th from 5 – 7pm at Tripoli Gallery in Wainscott, NY.

“In my neighborhood there is a tree I pass on my way to the park that has grown over the metal bars someone erected around it years ago. The metal bars were set there for protection, I suspect, but from what, I’m unsure. It’s the only tree with its own fence on the block. It’s not that the posts have penetrated the tree; the tree has absorbed the metal. The wood flows around it. This doesn’t seem to have unsettled the tree. Each spring its leaves are abundant. I wonder how long before the container becomes the thing contained?“

– Charlie Shultz

The relationship of the vessel to its volume is fundamental, but when the vessel holds a tree the balance of the interaction becomes more complex. The tree either outgrows its container, or the tree is pruned sufficiently to dwarf its growth and maintain an equilibrium. In other words, the relationship is not static, but dynamic, and it’s compelled by the conditions of the environment, which may be both natural (sun & rain) and cultural (clippers & saws). That the materials can be influenced, molded, encouraged to respond to the hand of the artist means that this relationship can be a sculptural one, and for Ben Keating, it is.

If there are two materials Keating understands with intuitive clarity, they would be molten metal and fertile soil. Keating is a person who operates a foundry and tends a garden; who teaches others how to work in the foundry and whose garden feeds his neighbors; who rescues saplings he finds covered in plastic, and a person whose home is the sum of what he’s built. When Keating talks about the fires of his furnace as he handles the delicate new buds on a tree that is more than two centuries old, you hear the kind of passion that only comes from a heady mixture of deep knowledge and limitless curiosity—a combination that rejuvenates itself endlessly.

In Found Life, Keating instinctively combines different species of trees with different types of metals. Like precious stones, the small trees are set in sculptures of containers. In one, the soft organic texture of a mossy mound at the base of the tree is accentuated by the shine of aluminum that surrounds it. In another we’re transfixed by the way the sculpted metal frames a small pine. Resulting in a discovery and a surprise, Keating’s recent body of work feels cohesive and interconnected as it simultaneously achieves tremendous variety.

Some of the forms Keating casts are domestic—a pair of old sneakers, now bronze—but mostly he is piecing together crude shapes to create different structures of ranging complexity. How these shapes correspond and establish a sense of balance with the verticality of the tree is a measure of Keating’s material intelligence and aesthetic sensibility. In a sense then, the natural world is Keating’s collaborator, for its energies are responsible for the tree’s very being, and by extension those energies imbue the sculpture. Because Keating is working with something that lives, his sculpture requires attention, care, and—importantly—being touched. To create a work of art that compels an obligation to conservation is to instill it with an intimacy that is needed in this day and age. It pushes against the basic expectations of contemporary art even as it aligns itself with the values from which much contemporary art has emerged. It is radical work, forged in fire, grown by the sun, and to be nurtured by the hands of one who will cherish it.

Benjamin Keating (b. 1977, Brooklyn, NY) has been commissioned by noteworthy artists and has exhibited throughout New York; in group shows at Paul Kasmin Gallery, in a Brooklyn Rail auction at Pace Gallery and alongside some of the great artists at the Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, NJ, where his metal-casting facility is based. Keating has exhibited with Tripoli Gallery since 2015 and had his first solo exhibition with the gallery in 2017. His work can be found in notable collectors' and artists' homes. Keating is based in Brooklyn and Jersey City.

For press inquiries or further information, please contact info@tripoligallery.com or call 631.377.3715

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Benjamin Keating Maple Raft, 2022 Japanese Maple, cement, moss, wood, strawberries, and bronze 264 x 300 x 72 inches (670.56 x 762 x 182.88 cm)
Benjamin Keating Trident Rock Shoe, 2022 Trident Maple, cast bronze, copper, and lober rock 30 x 21 x 11 inches (111.76 x 63.5 x 58.42 cm)
Benjamin Keating Bald Grinder 1, 2022 Bald Cypress, and bronze 47 x 39 x 24 inches (119.38 x 99.06 x 60.96 cm)
Benjamin Keating Mouth Open, 2022 aluminum 89 x 47 x 40 inches (226.06 x 119.38 cm)
Benjamin Keating Mouth Open, 2022 aluminum 89 x 47 x 40 inches (226.06 x 119.38 cm)
Benjamin Keating Bag in Tree, 2022 Trident Maple and bronze 44 x 25 x 23 inches (111.76 x 63.5 x 58.42 cm)
Benjamin Keating Englenmen Rock Shoe, 2022 cast bronze, copper, and stone 81 x 32 x 35 inches (205.74 x 81.28 cm)
Benjamin Keating Englenmen Rock Shoe, 2022 cast bronze, copper, and stone 81 x 32 x 35 inches (205.74 x 81.28 cm)
Benjamin Keating Tokonoma 1, 2022 bronze 36 x 44 x 12 inches (91.44 x 111.76 x 30.48 cm)
Benjamin Keating Tokonoma 2, 2022, 2022 bronze 27 x 29 x 8 inches (68.58 x 73.66 x 20.32 cm)
Benjamin Keating Hinoki Geometric 1, 2022 aluminum 30 x 18 x 10.75 inches (dims variable) (76.2 x 45.72 x 27.30 cm)
Benjamin Keating Boxwood Geometric 1, 2022 aluminum 28 x 12 x 11 inches (dims variable) (71.12 x 30.48 x 27.94 cm)
Benjamin Keating Boxwood Geometric 1, 2022 aluminum 28 x 12 x 11 inches (dims variable) (71.12 x 30.48 x 27.94 cm)
Benjamin Keating “Peace” Colorado Blue Spruce, 2022 cast aluminum and steele 34 x 20.5 x 13 inches (dims variable) (86.36 x 52.07 x 33.02 cm)
Benjamin Keating “Peace” Colorado Blue Spruce, 2022 (DETAIL) cast aluminum and steele 34 x 20.5 x 13 inches (dims variable) (86.36 x 52.07 x 33.02 cm)
Benjamin Keating Bondorerosa Basin Trey, 2022 aluminum, silver, and brass 32 x 22 x 15 inches (dims variable) (81.28 x 55.88 x 38.1 cm)
Benjamin Keating Bondorerosa Basin Trey, 2022 aluminum, silver, and brass 32 x 22 x 15 inches (dims variable) (81.28 x 55.88 x 38.1 cm)
Benjamin Keating Bondorerosa Bag in Tree 1, 2022 aluminum 27 x 14.5 x 9.5 inches (dims variable) (68.58 x 36.83 x 24.13 cm)