Benjamin F. Cruz
BORN: 1954
Benjamin “Ben” Cruz is a recipient of the 2015 UOB Painting of the Year (Established Artist Category) award. Born in 1954, Mr. Cruz is a multi-award-winning visual artist both in the Philippines and Singapore. He has a degree in advertising and pursued painting alongside a career in graphic design.
In his paintings, familiar landscapes morph into surreal worlds on canvas. The realistic-abstract painting techniques convey the distorted images of real-life objects and actual locations, which are layered with depictions from a different realm. Mr. Cruz’s play on dimensionality and layering invites the viewers to familiar yet strange surroundings. Swirled up in a mix of colours, shapes, and lines, we see common landmarks and objects, and human forms. Viewers are invited to step away from reality and dive into the wondrous imaginary worlds of his paintings.