Ben Steele

Art Brokerage: Ben Steele American Artist: b. 1977. Ben Steele is celebrated for his lifelike portraits, landscapes, and renderings of everyday objects. Drawing on a range of art historical and pop culture references, Steele combines the bright, primary colors of advertisements and strip malls with classical painting techniques. Salvador's Soft Drink (2019), for instance, nods to Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí's famous melting clock motif. Instead of timepieces, however, Steele's oil painting features drooping soft drink containers that bear the names of iconic brands such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Other works, such as Eau De Lichtenstein (2019), depict fictitious consumer products that refer to renowned art historical figures. Like much of Steele's oeuvre, this artwork demonstrates his meticulous attention to detail. An art history buff, Ben Steele imbues in his paintings tongue-in-cheek references to predecessors such as Leonardo da Vinci, Edgar Degas, Marc Chagall, and Jeff Koons. On many occasions, he has melded famed artists — Georges Seurat, Georgia O’Keefe, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, et al. — with crayons. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions at galleries in California, Utah, and Oklahoma. Listings wanted.