Скачать или смотреть Live drawing improvisation, 2019 YIELD 2

Ben Kenning is an Australian contemporary visual artist whose practice blends abstraction, symbolism, and figuration, exploring perceptual and cognitive phenomena. His work investigates the interplay between static visual form and dynamic perceptual experience, a concept he refers to as static-dynamic nonduality.
In the studio, Kenning works improvisationally, layering marks that echo chaotic systems and self-organizing principles. Through exploratory, large-scale, monochromatic compositions marked by iterative gestures and spontaneous layering, Kenning challenges traditional distinctions between fixed images and evolving interpretations. This iterative process produces compositions that evolve organically, giving rise to emergent fields where order manifests unpredictably from initial disorder.
A key aspect of Kenning’s practice involves revisiting his large-scale, black-and-white improvised compositions to isolate and recontextualize smaller visual fragments. By sifting through the lens from macro to micro perspectives, he identifies moments of curiosity that become catalysts for new works. These offshoots retain a connection to their source yet develop as independent pieces, extending the visual and conceptual language of his broader practice. This approach reflects Kenning’s interest in holons, entities that are both self-contained and part of a larger whole. Each artwork thus contributes to a cohesive yet evolving system, where individual expressions mirror the complexity and interdependence of the greater body of work.
Also central to his artistic inquiry lies a fascination with how perception constructs meaning from ambiguity. Influenced by neuro-aesthetics, cognitive science, Gestalt psychology, and chaos theory, Kenning’s works invite pareidolia, apophenia, and dynamic pattern recognition. Abstract fields of visual "noise" activate cognitive tendencies, encouraging viewers to continuously reinterpret forms through proximity, closure, and fragmentation.
His enduring preoccupation is not with fixed representation, but with how visual art can evoke a continuously evolving perceptual experience one in which static marks catalyse dynamic interpretation, shaped by the viewer’s cognitive, emotional, and associative processes.