Ben Turnbull is a British artist best known for his collages which focus on American culture and politics,
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The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' 10 April 2017
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''14 September 2011 and most notably his

I Don't Like Mondays "I Don't Like Mondays" is a song by Irish new wave group the Boomtown Rats about the Cleveland Elementary School shooting in San Diego. It was released in 1979 as the lead single from their third album, '' The Fine Art of Surfacing''. The so ...

series (2008), a title taken from a remark made by Brenda Spencer, the perpetrator of the

Cleveland Elementary School shooting (San Diego) The Cleveland Elementary School shooting took place on January 29, 1979, at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California, United States. The principal and a custodian were killed; eight children and a police officer were injured. ...

and featured various weapons carved into school desks, a commentary on gun massacres in

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

schools.

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana music, a genre or style of American music * Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1981 film), an American drama film * ''Americana'' (20 ...

are a staple of Turnbull's work – he has visited the country many times. In the various series it has inspired, a fierce critique of U.S culture is witnessed, in particular its politics, but also an affection and fascination which began from his boyhood when he was, like many of his generation, brought up on a diet of American TV programmes. This style has been dubbed ‘angry pop’, an allusion to its power and harnessing of Pop Art sensibilities. His

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

series, is in part a tribute in part to the New York City fireman who lost their lives after the

9/11 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

attacks. Turnbull has exhibited with a number of galleries, including two with

Steve Lazarides Steve Lazarides (; born c. 1969) is a British people, British-Greek Cypriots, Greek Cypriot publisher, photographer, collector and curator. He has helped popularise street art and underground art. Early life Steve Lazarides grew up in Bristol, ...

, the gallerist best known for his early championing of

graffiti art Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

and in particular his association with

Banksy Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist, and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive ep ...

. He has also had a retrospective at Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (2012), and more recently a solo show at

Saatchi Gallery The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art and an independent charity opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985. Exhibitions which drew upon the collection of Charles Saatchi, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving to the ...

(2017). Turnbull did not attend

art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on practice and related theory in the visual arts and design. This includes fine art – especially illustration, painting, contemporary art, sculpture, and graphic design. T ...

. His early adult life was spent as a fabricator – he ran his own business, and, among other projects, he helped create interiors of some of the most iconic London restaurants of the 1990s. This ability to ‘make things’ himself, unique amongst artists, is reflected in the exacting production of all his work.

Bibliography

* ''U.S vs Them''. Publisher:

, London 2017. * ''A Nightmare On Greek Street''. Publisher:

, London 2018. * ''Outsiders: Art by people''. Publisher:

Random House UK Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the followin ...

, April 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turnbull, Ben Living people 20th-century English painters English male painters 21st-century English painters 1958 births People from Burnley Alumni of the University of Brighton Alumni of the University of the Arts London English contemporary artists 20th-century English male artists 21st-century English male artists