Ben Weiner’s (NAP #56, 68, 80, 98) solo show “MaximumStrengthAgeDefy” at Mark Moore Gallery is eye candy for the soul and soulful drugs for your eyes. The gallery space greets you with bright and tasty looking colors, alluring and welcoming you in.
Delicate and small paintings open the show at the entrance to the gallery. What looks like 4×5” watercolor washes sit behind small glass plates, as if in a petri dish or under a microscope. Here Weiner acts as a scientist might with these petri dishes, beginning the show by exploring and experimenting with the very chemicals that seem to silently chant and illustrate the title mantra of his show: “MaximumStrengthAgeDefy.”
In Happiness and The Line, molly (or ecstasy) mixes happily with pastel inks on paper; in Restore Radiance,Maximum Strength Vanitas, and Still Life with Fruit Flavors, 5-Hour Energy Drink and darker ink looms heavy on paper; in Reality, vodka and ink form a cloudy haze; in Everything but the Girl, marijuana and ink create a light and ethereal scene on paper; and in Synergasm, viagra and ink create a dramatic and bold scene, as if coming down from a quake on the richter scale.