Ben Elliot

“He is an influencer and an artist, an artist and an influencer. On Instagram, he can be seen posing in beautiful places – on a beach, by a swimming pool, in the turquoise sea, under coconut trees or in the middle of the desert. He is fine, he travels, he leads the good life. Like all influencers, he shares on social networks the perfect shots of a perfect life. “Influencers are the new actors of our time,” he says. Many of their characteristics are interesting to study and, sometimes, to reproduce”. And that's exactly what he does: he reproduces things he's seen before. But he does more. For Ben Elliot, what constitutes the daily work of an influencer becomes art. He organizes a party, launches a new product on the market, opens a shop, collaborates with brands. His name itself becomes a brand. He has his festive event (Ben Elliot Party), his water (Ben Elliot Water), his shop (Ben Elliot Shop).”

“The Internet, cell phones, and social media networking, branding, and influencing are the creative and entrepreneurial tools and, at times, artworks themselves of the current generation. In the virtual realm, the individual possesses the agency and ability to construct a digital self or identity as real or as imagined as they wish. Ben Elliot debuts 5 new “Unreleased Selfies” from his archive. These images while curated and posed did not reflect his brand, the persona he carefully presents, shares, and sells online. While intended for digital viewing, they can be seen only here in real life. Influencers examines the current culture of self-branding and influencer marketing – how we construct ourselves, communicate online, build brands in our image and market ourselves – across a variety of disciplines – visual art, design, filmmaking, music – to suggest an interconnected and intermixed contemporary culture joining together people, brands, and fresh ideas.”