Ben Wilson (artist)

Ben Wilson
Wilson at work in Muswell Hill Broadway
Born	Ben Wilson 1963 Cambridge, England
Known for	Painting, found wood sculpture
Movement	Outsider art, pavement art

Ben Wilson (born 1963) is an English wood carver and outsider artist. The son of an artist, Wilson grew up in a creative environment and attended art school. His distaste for industrial waste, cars and rubbish eventually turned into an art form. He creates tiny works of art by painting chewing gum stuck to the pavement. Initially, his work garnered him unwanted attention from the authorities, but because he is not defacing private property but merely painting rubbish, he was found to be breaking no law. In addition to the chewing gum art, Wilson paints and sculpts. He has exhibited his paintings and sculptures in England, the United States, Germany, Ireland, Finland, France and Serbia.

Wilson was born in Cambridge and grew up in a family of artists in Barnet, in North London, England. His father is an artist who has painted, made ceramics and done performance art.

He lives in Muswell Hill with his family.

Wilson studied art at Middlesex University, but didn't like the "overanalysing" in formal art education and dropped out. He preferred to use found wood to create sculptures, as he had done as a child.

An artist with a strong distaste for industrial waste, cars and rubbish, Wilson took to carving sculptures in wooded areas. He would later find many of his carvings vandalized and destroyed. He had already created collages that incorporated collected bits of litter and had painted over billboards and advertisements in an effort to beautify the urban environment, an effort that brought him trouble with the law. He came on the idea of painting chewing gum, which required no gallery, bureaucracy, or permit and was not defacing property, since the gum was already discarded. He began painting gum on Barnet High Street, intending to create a trail into the centre of London.

Wilson does not confine himself to painting gum and has worked on large constructions in Finland, Australia and the United States, where he was artist-in-residence at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and created a large sculpture in Baltimore, Maryland. He also produces "normal-sized" paintings, which he occasionally sells.