‘It feels a bit like inventing a person in these paintings, which is very different to when I have made paintings of people I know; in that context it’s about finding empathy and connection with the person, whereas in these paintings you’re trying to conjure up this imagined life. It’s like painting ghosts, in a way.’
The paintings in Ben Sadler’s recent series’ You and I (2024) and Exclamations! (2025) are charming, sometimes amusing and deeply poignant portraits of imagined people. Largely colourful, they are full of personality. In each series, the titles of the paintings correspond to each letter of the alphabet (with the exception of the letters U and I, which are missing from the series You and I). For Sadler, the starting point for these works was the idea of ‘the different layers of things happening at an exhibition opening, where there’s the work, there’s the space, there’s the person in the space, and then there’s that shared space of talking to each other. I was interested in how that carries through to the process of looking at the paintings.’ Viewing these imagined exhibition goers, we are drawn into their world; who are they, where do they come from, what thoughts are going through their minds? Sometimes staring at the viewer, sometimes averting their gaze, they are pensive and reflective. Lost in their own thoughts, these figures have a timeless quality.
Ben Sadler was born in 1977 in Birmingham. He is an only child and spent a lot of time in his childhood years drawing and hanging out with the family cats. He studied at the Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford (1995–98), and the Royal College of Art, London (2002–04). Since 2001 he has been one half of the artist duo Juneau Projects with his friend Philip Duckworth, while also making his own paintings, music, poems, and videos. He lives and works in Birmingham.