The Cornish art scene encompasses and embraces a huge breadth of artistic practice and approaches. If we view being an artist as a pure form of self-expression, then few artists embody that title as well as Ben Cook.

“In the fine art world I’m being a bit of a devil’s advocate by calling myself a surf artist. I had such a strong critical reputation in my previous working life that it’s a bit of a shock for people to hear me describe myself as a surf artist, because their perception of what a surf artist is or does doesn’t fit with their view of an intellectual art practice. In a way, that’s good. I have to try and place it in such a way, that I’m not doing what other people have done, or following a well-trodden path.”

Ben is an artist who works across styles, disciplines and mediums; his work could be hard to define but he’s also happy to hang the label of ‘surf art’ above it to challenge both the audience and the established art world that he has his roots in.

“Don’t, as an art community, tell people that “everything is art” and that you can do whatever you want, and then say “except, surf art, or anything about skateboarding, because that’s not really art.”

Whether working with traditional materials and methods such as sketching with charcoal to portray non-traditional subjects and scenes, or using his choice of materials such as pieces of old wetsuits or surf wax as the abstract element of an expanded abstract painting practice, Ben’s art is pure self-expression. It is often challenging and always thought-provoking. It is an act of creativity above and beyond being talented within a particular medium such as painting or sculpture. Ben’s art is his ideas. “Art can be whatever you want it to be, and that’s what we’re taught and led to believe. Very few people take that opportunity, but that’s what inspired me in the first place about art.”

Born in Gloucestershire but mostly raised in Yorkshire, Ben’s career as an artist was established in the North of England. Through the 90s and early part of the millennium Ben was living and working in Manchester where he was an established fine artist and art school lecturer. Upon moving to Cornwall, the last thing that Ben thought he’d do was make art about surfing. It was simply too much of a cliché. But as a keen surfer, the inspiration was unavoidable. His challenge then was to take that inspiration and then investigate and express it in a creative and true manner.

Initial explorations involved “deconstructing” surfboards, creating semi-sculptural pieces using biofoam and plywood “stringers” laminated with fiberglass cloth and a bioresin, as per standard surfboard construction but presented as small squares or circles with multiple plywood stringers or stringers curving through the foam. They were recognisable as a combination of surfboard materials, but they weren’t surfboards. A later series used similar laminated foam and fiberglass panels, but black, as canvasses for Ben to “paint” on using surfwax. At first he presumed that the wax would be a dynamic, almost temporary medium as it melted and moved if hung in direct sunlight or simply over time. But it didn’t, which played into a theme that runs throughout Ben’s work of the environmental impact of many of the petrochemical-derived materials used by the surf industry to make their products. It’s also allowed him to revisit surf wax as a material and develop his process, sometimes applying it as a surfer would to create a bumpy texture (for grip) but also pushing and moulding it, or heating it with a hairdryer and moving it around.

“No one has ever made paintings out of surf wax. I’m doing something that, as far as I know, nobody else has ever done, which is what I was raised to believe an artist did – to explore things that need to be explored.”

What makes Ben Cooks practice so interesting is the juxtaposition that he leans into between presenting under the label of ‘surf art’ with all of its clichés, presumptions and baggage, and the pure creativity of a multi-media artistic practice that pushes boundaries in every direction. It’s not just his choice of materials or how he uses them, but the topics that he explores and how he presents them. He defies labels whilst embracing one, and you never know what he’s going to do next.

Ben Cook’s work is held in the collections of Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, Atlas Manchester and the Arts Council of England. His series of Found Paintings won the 1998 Pebeo International Painting competition in Marseilles, France.
He currently lives and works in Penwith, West Cornwall. You can follow his practice on Instagram at @bencooksurfart.
A selection of his work can be found at Circle Contemporary Gallery, Wadebridge.