Life and work
Banez was born on June 7, 1962 in Davao City, Philippines.[3] He studied at the Learning Center of the Arts (now Ford Academy of the Arts) in that city, where one of his tutors was Victorio C. Edades, Jr.[4]– Revisiting the Art of Victorio Edades., M Magazine: Life and Living in Mindanao, Issue No. 2, July 2008, p. 44. Margot Marfori writes: “Edades and Aida Ford encouraged talent to flourish and flower further. Evidence of this is seen in one of the students of the very first group under his tutelage in the Center. Ben Banez, for example, who is now based in New York City was recently conferred as one of the foremost surrealist painters of the world.”
In 2002 he won the Asian Fellowship Painting Competition of the Vermont Studio Center in Vermont, USA.[1]:47
In 2004, Bañez went to New York where he now lives. In 2010, he was included in Lexikon der phantastischen Künstler.[1]:47https://books.google.com.pe/books?r…
Between 2009 and 2014 several drawings and paintings were acquired for the Robert J. WickenheiserJohn Milton collection at the University of South Carolina.
In 2017 a portrait of John Milton was added to the Milton’s Cottage collection-http://wahcenter.net/2016/12/milton…, and he was named to the editorial board of Emmanations, a print anthology of poetry, fiction and essay published by International Authors.http://internationalauthors.info/ed…
Honors
In 2016 Banez was named an official full member of the Williamsburg Circle of International Arts and Letters, among several other highly regarded scholars, artists, writers and performers.[6] https://sites.google.com/site/willi…
Themes
Banez’s work revolves around the theme “666”, the “reign of evil in the world”, which he expresses through psychedelic depictions of “human and sub-human figures.”[7]http://www.oovrag.com/gallery/galle… To Bañez, “Satan brings color to the world,”[8]http://wahcenter.wixsite.com/wah-ce… which is his interpretation of the felix culpa –https://www.revolvy.com/main/index…. theodicy.[9]https://sites.google.com/site/inter…
This proposition stems from his strong belief in Christianity and in the “Judeo-Christian metanarrative” where the Devil’s “rebellious power” is prevailing in the world. Using jewel-toned colors, Bañez depicts Evil as beginning to take over as exemplified by the wars, environmental degradation, injustice, and the proliferation of crimes against humanity.[10]https://sites.google.com/site/inter…