Ben Evans (b. 1995, North Carolina) is a contemporary painter whose work merges glamour, memory, and identity through a distinctly cinematic lens. Drawing on imagery from vintage photography, suburban Americana, and queer culture, Evans constructs dreamlike scenes that feel both familiar and performative. His pastel palettes, bold contrasts, and stylized figures evoke a sense of nostalgia tinged with tension—inviting viewers into a world that balances sincerity and irony.
Exploring themes of desire, vulnerability, and self-presentation, Evans uses camp aesthetics as a form of storytelling, where exaggeration becomes a means of truth-telling. His subjects—often women or androgynous figures—occupy moments of stillness that feel charged with unspoken emotion. Painting from his studios in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, Evans captures the fleeting intersection between beauty and melancholy, crafting images that sit somewhere between the theatrical and the deeply personal.
