Australian-born FEATURED ARTIST Ben Frost is known for his kaleidoscopic Pop Art and mash-up paintings that take inspiration from areas as diverse as graffiti, collage, photorealism and sign-writing. By subverting mainstream iconography from the worlds of advertising, entertainment and politics, he creates a visual framework that is bold, confronting and often controversial.

With a blatant disrespect for the signifiers of our visual culture, Ben creates multi-layered surfaces of refreshing intensity. He has been exhibiting throughout the world for the last 12 years and has been involved in his share of controversy. In 2000, he faked his own death for an exhibition suitably titled “Ben Frost is Dead” which made national news in Australia. His painting “White Children Playing” caused a stir for its graphic depiction of children using drugs and a masked and disgruntled assailant slashed one of the paintings in his exhibition at the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane. Police also tried to remove one of his collaborative artworks in an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney because of its graphic nature.

He also began and continues to run the Australian street art website Stupid Krap and started the yearly paste-up festival Paste Modernism, which is the largest of its kind in the world. Read more about Ben and his works at Ben Frost Is Dead.

Cover art: “Fear of a Dud Planet.”