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Ben Guiver is an artist who has a background in psychiatry and music. He has received commissions from Resonance 104fm, The Guardian and the Institute of Psychiatry (Maudsley Hospital, London). His work ranges between abstraction to more focussed pieces examining, for example, public and private space, group dynamics, and the interactions of social and individual acts. He is an honorary lecturer at Middlesex University School of Health and Social Sciences, and studied for the BA in Fine Art at Central St Martins school of art in 2007-8. He has recently begun studying for the MA in art therapy at the University of Hertfordshire.

Ben studied politics and philosophy at Leeds University 1990-93, and learnt to mix records during this time, subsequently playing at nights such as Coalesce (London), The Electronic Lounge (ICA), Anokha (Blue Note), Its Obvious (Leeds Warehouse), Back to Basics (Music Factory, Leeds) and the Leeds pirate station Dream fm. He has undertaken production and writing work in occasional music projects, for example with the cult indie band Picture Center (Vinyl Japan/North American Recordings) and graphic design for other artists (King Brillo). He associated, for some time, with the Project X, Smokescreen and DIY soundsystems that operated out of Leeds, Sheffield and Derby respectively, and the now defunct London based studio Ultimate Brain (St Pancras Way).

Ben qualified as a psychiatric nurse in the mid 1990’s in London: following this, he worked residentially for one year at an Arbours association therapeutic community. The Arbours Association was set up by Dr Joseph Berke, an American psychiatrist, after he worked with the radical psychiatrist R.D. Laing in the 1960’s, notably at Kingsley Hall in Tower Hamlets, London. Ben was re-introduced to art by the art therapist Julia Saltiel whilst working in the art group she ran at the community. He subsequently ran an art group at the psychiatric day hospital for Islington for six years. His art work has been influenced by this work, for example

“I developed the ideas of using stencils whilst working at the Belle Ridley Day Hospital…… I think it’s interesting that within an institution where I assessed the form and content of some of my patients’ beliefs, I became enthusiastic about a device that enabled you to separate the form and content, and recombine these aspects of an image.

Ben makes artwork within multiple mediums, for example drawing, painting, photography, sound, and continues to work in the Camden and Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust, facilitating art groups both within his place of work and in conjunction with artists at the Cubitt gallery in Angel

Ben’s work has been featured in Creative Week, The Guardian, The Royal Photographic Society Journal, and The Wire. Websites such as the West African Doctors and Healthcare Professionals Network, and web ‘blogs’ such as Mind hacks, have also picked up on his work.

Ben has had a number of individual shows and participated in group shows in the UK:


Use your Imagination :Use your Imagination : ( piece in a group show by the creative groups, Highgate Centre : Camden and Islington Foundation Trust ) - The Highgate Centre, Kentish Town ( October ) and then South Wing, St Pancras Hospital, London ( November ) ; Swiss Cottage Library, London ( December to January ) ; Belsize Park Library, London ( February to March ) : 2008.

The Highgate Centre is a long standing day centre for people with mental health difficulties in Camden. It is part of the services provided by the Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust to people within the Borough of Camden.

This is an exhibition of artwork by members of the creative groups that are part of the centre’s program, convened by Maurizia Toovey ( S.R.A.T) and Ben Guiver ( R.N.M.H. ). Work featured includes that of artists who have previously exhibited successfully, for example Tony Rogan, in his and Adetayo Adefioye’s exhibition at the Conference Centre, St Pancras, in 2007.



Work in Process: Spence Café, Stoke Newington Church Street, London
1st December 2007 to 3rd January 2008.
Previous and new work in this cosy venue. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/benreviug/2088719403/



Showoff Exhibition group show : County Hall White Space, London
11/12 August 2007:
A group show curating 16 artists work, including Adam Koukoudakis, Craig Carpenter, Alex Scaglia, Bee Hale, Remi / Rough, Timid, Marcus Farnworth, Jon Hall, Neil Juggins, Angus Kerr, Rita Soromenhoangus, Geoffrey Wilson-Harrington, Niel Woodman.

http://www.myspace.com/showoffexhibition

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benreviug/sets/72157601484820973/



Seduction : Institute of Psychiatry Gallery, De Crespigny Park, Camberwell, November 2006 to January 2007;
Ten A2 drawings ( stencilled biro and black marker pen ) and paintings (poster paint, oil – dulux high gloss trade). Titles were mostly appropriated from advertising bylines, for example ‘imagine the envy’, ‘what scenery’, ‘love every day’ and ‘like no other’. One picture contained the song lyric from the Joy Division song ‘Transmission’ as a counterpoint to the appropriated commercial statements:

http://www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/events/?id=341



Gateway to the Quarter exhibition, curated by Aesthetica magazine, featured his work within a digital art exhibition in Finkle Street, York, that ran from 7pm to midnight from the 1st to the 31st October 2006:

http://www.aesthetica-online.com/images/de_catalogue.pdf


A Sense of Scale, at the Foundry in Great Eastern Street in 2006
featuring the critically acclaimed sound installation broadcast on Resonance 104.4fm, ‘Radio Sermonettes’, featuring texts by writers such as Will Self, Francois Roustang, Hakim Bey, Adam Phillips and Jean Baudrillard in addition to soundstage:

www.radio-sermonettes.com
http://www.archive.org/details/RadioSermonettes


Out of my Head, in St Pancras hospital, in 2005:
painting, photography, drawing and a sound installation: interviewed by Life and Living, Resonance 104.4fm, London (Mick Hughes and Howard Jaqcues), guest dj on the Bermuda Triangle Resonance 104.4fm also.

http://www.documentstore.candinet.nhs.uk/store/mhsct/corporate/out%20of%20my%20head%20revised%20final%20press%20wide%20%2001.doc

Web presence:

www.flickr.com/photos/benreviug

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Ben+Guiver/42373.html

http://thefaithofgraffiti.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/thedrugsuburbnettles

untitled #23 : 2001: Finsbury Park, artist unknown: digital photograph kodak dc3200

2001
variable

extra-ordinary rendition : 2006 : spray paint applied onto vinyl matt emulsion primed MDF via shipping and homemade stencils

2006
200 (w) by 42 (h)

untitled #28 : 2003 : charcoal print

2003
59 (w) by 42(h)

first objects : 2002 : oil based paint applied to mdf: box framed in 4" pine

2002
65 (w) by 17 (h) by 10 (d)

imagine the envy : 2006 : biro stencilled onto acid free paper, with black marker pen.

2006
59 (w) by 42(h)

untitled #27 : 2001 : digital photograph, olympus camera

2001
37 (w) by 25 (h)

untitled #78 : 2003 : poster paint smeared and thrown onto acid free paper

2003
59 (w) by 42(h)

papua new guinea : 2007 : newsprint, photocopies and objects ( used cartridge cases, found tourist statuette remains from Leicester square tube station ) applied to 'Fine Beans' cardboard box

2007
cardboard box, newsprint and pictures, photocopies, found objects.
29cm (w) by 21cm (h) by 10 cm (d) all dimensions approximate