Ben Junta

I work with a variety of media - oils and acrylics, spray paint, stencils, collage, found objects, tree bark, clothing, street detritus, photographs, digital media, and written words.

A graduate of Occidental College, my art studies began with Squeak Carnwath at the University of California, Davis. My early efforts were landscapes largely influenced by Mark Rothko and Richard Diebenkorn, and then by studying with the noted American painters Wolf Kahn (in the Hans Hoffman tradition of "push-pull"), Bernard Chaet, and the teachings of Charles Hawthorne as studied at the Cape Cod School of Art in Provinctown, MA. I also gained a bit of the "art mentality/life as an artist" while studying with the British painter John Walker. He was just cool to talk to.

My work is all about an exploration of gender stereotyping within the culture, and specifically how this affects men. I myself played collegiate football, and yet also found art while in college. This was a very weird mixing of two quite different worlds. I am hoping to explore how men tend to be very narrowly and stereo typically defined, and how this affects not just one man, but the whole culture.

I have exhibited on the East Coast, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Los Angeles, ...

Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT 1994
Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM 1992
Cape Cod School of Art, Provincetown, MA 1991
Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA BA 1988
University of California, Davis 1984
Middlebury College, 1983-84

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2023
Water and Wood, Resin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2023
Converge, Beacon Arts Building, Los Angeles, CA 2019
Water and Wood, Resin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2018
Palos Verdes Art Center, New Works, Los Angeles, CA, 2014
Hale Arts Space, Santa Monica, CA, Jan 2015
Siren 6500, Group Show, Hollywood, CA, 2013
Siena Art Institute, "Drawing Connections", Sienna, Italy, 2011
Saatchi Online - Featured Artist, August, 2011
Zask Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2011
Aera Home Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2011
Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, CA 2007
Allyce Fine Art/Marin Theatre, Mill Valley,CA 2006
Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, CA 2006
Cafe Borrone, Menlo Park, CA 2005
Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto, CA 2006, 2007
Library of Congress, Wash. DC, "Creativity across America" - 2005
Bryant Street Gallery - Monterey, CA - Oya - 2005
Bryant Steet Gallery, Palo Alto, CA Summer 2005
Caruso Woods Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA 2004
Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, CA 2004
Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto, CA Summer 2004
San Francisco Landscape Design Show, 2003
San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, 2001
Steven Miller Gallery, Menlo Park, CA, 2001
Sharon Park Gallery, Menlo P...