The deeper you look into the incredibly detailed drawings of artist Benjamin Sack, the more the cities depicted seem to multiply, as if you could travel through his fractal cities forever and ever without stopping. Drawn in a classical style in black and white, his works play with the topography of architecture that has run amok, growing and expanding upon itself without limits. A little bit Leonardo da Vinci, a little bit MC Escher, the surreal pen-and-ink drawings draw you into fantastical worlds where ‘urban density’ has taken on a whole new meaning.
The American artist, who received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2011, also produces time lapse videos of his work, so you can watch it come alive on the page.
“Sacks’ work explores architecture as a flexible medium capable of expressing the unique space between realism and abstraction; where interpretation and our ability to create meaning is in flux,” says Robert Fontaine Gallery, where the artist has displayed work many times over the years. “Within this space, Sack, furnished with pen and ink, encapsulates both the infinite and the infinitesimal. His work invites the eye to explore drawings of the ‘big picture,’ to gaze into a kaleidoscope of histories and to look further into the elemental world of lines and dots.”
“Sack draws a majority of his inspiration from art history and classical music. By combining these interests, Sack’s works become symphonies of ink. As well as art history and classical music, Sack derives a great amount of inspiration from the sciences, history, literature and the contemplation of paradoxes.”
