Ben Schonzeit

            Ben Schonzeit is a painter born in 1942 in Brooklyn, New York. He currently resides in New York City and has received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cooper Union. Ben has been a huge part of the SoHo movement in the 1960s as well as the Hyperrealist movement during the 1970s. His artwork has been displayed in hundreds of exhibitions and shows.

            When he was younger, he first found his inspiration from the National Geographic magazines that he would find at his aunt and uncle’s home. Many of his drawings that he started out with are from the magazines he collected.

            His work ranges from Hyperrealism to Surrealism. His subjects vary from food, still life, animals, and flowers. Schonzeit’s acrylic paintings can be completed in a mere day or can span across months. His paintings are made at very large scales.

            I think his work is interesting because of the amount of detail captured. Adding such detail helps to remind the viewer why we are attracted to those objects in the first place. I also love his variety in subject choice. His work looks like photographs, which can especially be seen in his series of flower paintings that appear to be blurry, like a camera out of focus.