Bass and Reiner is pleased to present Summer Camp (Ed.1), the first in what hopes to be a series of short term installations and interventions to break up the summer doldrums. To be honest though, we reserve the right to never do it again if it doesn’t work. 

The first edition of Summer Camp will feature a brand new installation by Denver based artist Mark Benson, entitled Life, Liberty which follows the movements of a robot weasel chasing a ball inside a larger ball, slowly making its way across the gallery floor, every once and again bumping into another robot weasel chasing a similar ball inside a similar larger ball. Some have stopped altogether and as a result it’s unclear if the weasels always or never have the ball.

By co-opting the language of consumer marketing, Mark Benson’s work reveals how target markets are constructed, reinforced, and internalized by tapping into our desires. His works function as stand-ins for psychological states that yearn for convenience, connection, entertainment, and comfort. Through anthropomorphizing objects and using humor, he evokes empathy in the viewer as each work becomes representative of a uniquely relatable protagonist.

Mark Benson (b.1978) received his MFA from California College of the Arts in 2011. He currently lives and works in Denver, Colorado. Benson has shown with Ever Gold Gallery (San Francisco, CA) , Eli Ridgway Gallery (San Francisco, CA), Royal Nonesuch (Oakland, CA)  City Limits Gallery (Oakland, CA), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA) and Museo Tamayo (CDMX, Mexico), among others.