I was away for a long time, working as a disaster relief specialist in war-torn countries. When I returned, I found it hard to process what stood for ‘normal life’. Without a threat to your existence, normal life is an existential threat. My response has been to create art that makes people think, but also laugh. My ideas are often created digitally and then rendered as hand-finished canvasses, giclee prints, T-shirts and merchandise, or forming 3D sculptures.”

Ben is an independent artist based in Leamington Spa. He does have paint-splattered work tops with jam jars full of oily brushes as well as computer screens and stylus pens, but he says that his medium is irony. By which he explains, “I subvert iconic images and phrases with which you might be familiar, so that they take on a different, perhaps darker meaning, but all through a comic lens. I believe the role of an artist is to start a dialogue, and to get people thinking, but also laughing.” Ben’s ideas are a social commentary that uses humour to create satirical works. For instance, inspired by Warhol’s soup cans, the BBC’s exposure of Brewdog’s ‘toxic working culture’, or by doodling on Penguin classic book covers. His work explores the impacts of capitalism, the dark arts of marketing and how the world has changed since ‘the classic texts’ were written.