Ben Cain

Biography

Areas of Research: Labour and Leisure, Post-Work, Collectivity and Interdependence in a climate of omni-present Participatory Experience.

Ben Cain lives and works in London and Zagreb. Ben completed his MA at Jan van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht in 2000, and a BA in Interactive Art in Manchester in 1997. He works across various media and disciplines. Ben’s practice deals with themes of work, labour, and artistic action. He has recurrently explored art’s ambiguous relationship to industry, commodification and immaterial labour, and is interested in how artworks might pose questions about what we think they are doing and, by implication, our role as viewers in their social and cultural production. His work has been exhibited internationally including Manifesta 9; Busan Biennale, South Korea; Croatian Pavilion at 56th Venice Biennale (with Tina Gverović), Wiels, Brussels; Supplement, New York/London; Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool; Turner Contemporary, Margate; Blue Coat Gallery, Liverpool; South London Gallery, London; The Tetley, Leeds. He is a tutor in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, and he runs a residency programme at CASS School of Art, both in London; he also teaches regularly at ISIA Urbino in Italy and he was recently a professor at WHW Academy in Zagreb where he continues to work as a visiting artist.