Artist Profile: Ben Orozco
Ben Orozco is an artist and designer based in Madison, WI. His practice investigates, abstracts and re-encodes space through illustration, patterns, light and sculpture. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2019 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts with concentrations in Glass, Graphic Design and Sculpture. In 2020, he completed a Fulbright-Hays fellowship in Småland, Sweden, researching Swedish glass and neon techniques. He is currently a freelance designer supporting small businesses and nonprofits in the creative sector.
1) Have the events of 2020 impacted your creative process?
Yes and no. I was halfway through a 9-month research project in Sweden when the pandemic broke out. Despite the many closures and cancellations, I was able to complete a solo exhibition before departing in May. Upon returning to the Madison area, I started engaging my design practice to answer needs in the creative community to mobilize and organize. My practice as an artist and designer is ever-fluctuating; when I’m not creating artwork, I’m helping others through visual problem-solving.
2) How do you continually seek out or discover new inspiration?
Learning new theories and techniques in art and science make me reconsider how I see my work and surroundings. Optical and spatial theories have inspired my most recent sculptures utilizing pattern, perception and visual psychology.
3) Give an example of an effective "artistic collaboration" you either studied or directly participated in?
In 2018, I began a collaborative relationship with Madison-based artist Emily Leach. We put together a time-based public installation of fog and neon, with the text “NOTHING WILL COME OF NOTHING” in two separate sites across Madison. The phrase had an immense presence when installed, but its core message has continued to call out to me even after the work is disassembled.
Anatomy of our Nightstands with Yusi Liu is another example of an effective collaboration! Curators and graphic designers go well together as they both exist to craft compelling visual stories through text and image. In this case, Yusi and I capture the many emotions and states of being that can arise from an everyday piece of furniture.
4) Fave installation, exhibition, writing or performance you encountered this year?
Life Lines by David Svensson. The public artwork utilizes light, pattern and space to transform the intimate heartbeats of his newborn son into a space that becomes more immense than the sum of its abstract parts.