Justin Benjamin: Vantage

Justin Benjamin is a painter who primarily works out of his studio in Nassau, The Bahamas. Most of his paintings depict life on Family Islands he frequented throughout his life – Eleuthera, Long Island, and Abaco – and his work places the audience squarely in the perspective of the intimate voyeur. Through them, we witness the private, secluded life of the islands’ locals, peering through poles and structural cut-outs. The viewer adopts Benjamin’s eyes as the romantic and becomes the first person in his reminiscing and memories, the retelling of days and nights, either from recent events or reconstructions of long past memories.

At his core, Benjamin is a wanderer in his own home and creates paintings that reflect this perspective as a viewpoint as he travels throughout the archipelago. As he drifts from island to island, falling into local activities and family flings, Benjamin records his own experiences and invites the viewer to participate in these memories with him. Unlike the static picture of some romanticists and the alienation of the tourism advertisement, Benjamin is a voyeur in the middle of the room, holding a connection with each space he documents.