February 18–March 18, 2023
Steve Turner is pleased to present Some things last a long time, the debut solo exhibition for Santiago-born and Berlin-based Pablo Benzo. The exhibition will feature a group of new paintings that are inspired by imagination, dream, design and nature. The paintings have a tropical island feeling as though they depict blue skies and oceans, fiery sunsets, green hills and exotic plants, fruits and flowers. Yet there are no such scenes. Benzo mostly creates exotic interior scenes that contain windows to the outer world. The juxtapositions combine biomorphic forms and rectilinear geometry which enable the viewer to inhabit an exotic installation of art and design. Pedestals and table tops hold a single black shoe, an oversized pear, a radiantly yellow lemon, an undulating vase or an exotic lamp or flower. Delicately painted contrasting gradients of color fill the paintings, and though there are no human figures, table legs with refined feet convey movement and life. The scenes are imagined and emotional, rhythmic and musical. According to Benzo,”I hope to emulate the experience of looking at a river from a fixed point. While you observe the same scene, the flowing water is always different.”
Pablo Benzo (born Santiago, 1982) earned a degree in Graphic Design at University of Chile, 2009 before soon relocating to Berlin where he still resides. In recent years, his work has been included in numerous group exhibitions as well as solo exhibitions at BC Gallery, Basel (2021); Dio Horia, Mykonos (2021); Gallery Animal, Santiago (2018 & 2020). This is Benzo’s first exhibition with Steve Turner.
Born 1982, Santiago, Chile
Lives and works in Berlin
Solo Exhibitions
2023
Some things last a long time, Steve Turner, Los Angeles
2022
Art021, Shanghai (with Dio Horia)
2021
Inner Landscapes, BC Gallery, Switzerland
Some velvet morning, Dio Horia, Mykonos
2020
El ruido vano en la entrada del silencio, Galería Animal, Santiago
2019
The great silence of these distances, Cass Contemporary, Tampa, Florida
Benzo Solo II, Mommsen 35 Gallery, Berlin
2018
Favoritismo, Galería Animal, Santiago
The allure of devotion, BC Gallery, Berlin
Dissolution of all enchantments, Soon Gallery, Switzerland
2016
Willow Waltz, BC Gallery, Berlin
2015
Strange enthusiasm in troubled time, Mommsen 35 Gallery, Berlin
2014
Benzo Solo, Mommsen 35 Gallery, Berlin
Group Exhibitions
2023
Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin (upcoming)
ENTER, Copenhagen (with Steve Turner) (upcoming)
Kiaf Seoul (with Kornfeld Gallery) (upcoming)
Expo Chicago (with Dio Horia) (upcoming)
2022
Untitled, Miami Beach (with Steve Turner)
CAN, Ibiza (with Dio Horia)
After Hope, Dio Horia, Athens
Kiaf, Seoul (with Eligere Gallery)
Art 021, Shanghai (with Dio Horia)
Tutti Frutti, Plan X Gallery, Milan
The Breakfast club, Eligere Gallery, Seoul
2021
Untitled, Miami Beach (with Galería Animal)
Domesticity, Volery Gallery, Dubai
Misa #3, König Gallery, Berlin
Enter, Denmark (with Dio Horia)
East Hampton phase three, The Hole, New York
2020
Colectiva XLII, Galería Animal, Santiago
Grand Opening, BC Gallery, Switzerland
2019
The new classics show, C.O.A Gallery, Montreal
2018
Urvanity, Madrid (with BC Gallery)
Destination 131, Forum des Halles, Paris
2017
Paint it forward, Cass Contemporary, Tampa
Modern Fusion, The Art Scouths, Berlin
Art Basel, Switzerland (with BC Gallery)
Jedno – s Drugim/One-Another, Izložbeni salon Izidor Kršnjavi, Croatia
What the gallery weekend is II, Urban Spree Gallery, Berlin
More than this, Mommsen 35 Gallery, Berlin
Knotenpunkt 17, Affenfaust Gallery, Hamburg
2016
I Sky you, Magic Beans Gallery, Berlin
Viborg International Billboard Painting Festival, Denmark
What the gallery weekend is, Urban Spree Gallery, Berlin
Artmossphere Public Art Biennale, Moscow
Art Bodensee, Vienna (with Galerie Kristine Hamann)
Billboard Painters Exhibition, Galleri NB, Denmark
Pienkow Art Residents Exhibition, Pienkowsky Gallery, Poland
International artists III, Mommsen 35 Gallery, Berlin
No walls, Mario Kreuzberg Gallery, Berlin
2015
International artists, Mommsen 35 Gallery, Berlin
International artists II, Mommsen 35 Gallery, Berlin
Residencies
2021
Dio Horia, Mykonos
2016
Pienkow Artist Residency, Lipinki, Poland
Bibliography
2022
“Pablo Benzo,” Contemporary Art Now
2021
“Some Velvet Morning: Pablo Benzo @ Dio Horia, Mykonos,” Juxtapoz, July
2020 “A Look at Pablo Benzo’s Mural at El Persa Víctor Manuel in Santiago, Chile,” Juxtapoz, August
“The Vain Noise at the Entrance of Silence: New Works by Pablo Benzo in Chile,” Juxtapoz, April
2019
“The Great Silence of These Distances: Pablo Benzo @ Cass Contemporary,” Juxtapoz, May
“Artist Spotlight: Pablo Benzo,” Booooooom, April
