Democracy Soup

Artist's Book by Guy Ben-Ari
Published by Meta Meta Meta, LLC
Brooklyn, New York
First Edition, Summer 2016

Paperback, 9" x 6" with 120 pages, 51 Drawings by Guy Ben-Ari, a preface by Eric Sutphin, and a conversation between Eric Sutphin and Guy Ben-Ari.

Democracy Soup is an artist’s book by Guy Ben-Ari published by Meta Meta Meta LLC in June 2016. This book presents 51 black and white reproductions from a series of ink drawings on vellum that the artist began in 2015. A preface by Eric Sutphin accompanies the reproductions, as well as a conversation between Ben-Ari and Sutphin about this body of work.

This series of works is based on imagery which originates in the visual world of politics and campaigns, through the lens of news media. Ben-Ari selects images of presidential candidates, hand gestures, televised debate backdrops, U.S. electoral maps, and official White House press material, using them as a starting point for his drawings. Vellum is a surface that inherently resists the act of mark making, repelling the ink in such a way that creates unpredictable textures and patterns. In using this technique, Ben-Ari is able to insert an element of randomness into the process of production. As the ink is applied, the figurative elements often become less legible and increasingly abstract.

Democracy Soup includes 51 black and white plates, available in softcover or a limited hardcover edition.  
Dimensions: 9” x 6” with 120 pages. 

Guy Ben-Ari is a visual artist based in New York City. He is a recent Artist in Residence at Triangle Arts and the Keyholder Residency Program at the Lower East Side Printshop in New York. Guy is a SIP Award recipient from the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Program at The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, and a recent Artist-in-Residence at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Workspace Program, New York. Ben-Ari received his MFA from Columbia University's School of the Arts in 2011, and his BFA with honors from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem in 2009, where he received the Presser Award for Excellence in Painting. In 2008, Ben-Ari was selected for the Exchange Program for Merit Students to study Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London.

Ben-Ari's recent solo exhibitions were held at Scaramouche, NY, Vox Populi in Philadelphia, and Hamidrasha Gallery in Tel-Aviv. His work has been featured in exhibitions in New York City at Thierry Goldberg, Smack Mellon, Denny Gallery, The Jewish Museum, Fisher Landau Center for Art, and SculptureCenter.


Eric Sutphin is a writer and curator based in New York City. Eric received his BFA at Rutgers University and his MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Publications include; Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail and Artcritical in addition to exhibition catalogues and artist books. Curatorial projects include; Rosemarie Beck: Paintings from the 60s (New York, 2013) and Detlef Aderhold: Signs (Germany, 2015). Eric has been a visiting critic at Delaware College of Art and Design, The School of Visual Arts and Rutgers University.