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'Meet Ben Junta' in Canvas Rebel Interview

'Meet Ben Junta' in Canvas Rebel Interview

STORIES & INSIGHTS | Spring 2024

Ben, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Taking risks in life can be the difference between merely going through the motions of life and truly being deeply involved in experiencing life. I like the way some say that the only way you know you are really living is if you have fallen or failed. That shows one is willing to take risks. Taking risks offer no guarantee of success, but they also allow anyone to achieve greater heights in life. Without a meaning to life, without “a why”, life may cease to hold magic and wonder for all we can be, feel, do, and share.Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

HANG TIME GROUP EXHIBITION AT BRIDGETTE MAYER GALLERY
By Allan Lane / June 6, 2023


Hang Time is a vibrant summer group show with an exciting lineup of West Coast artists whose works span various mediums and scales.

Bridgette Mayer Gallery is delighted to announce the arrival of Hang Time. This exciting new summer group exhibition captures the exhilaration and joy of the Hang Time roller coaster and Knott’s Berry Farm in California. This captivating exhibition combines a collection of bright and innovative works by eight talented California and coastal artists. Hang Time will be displayed at Bridgette Mayer Gallery from Tuesday, June 6 to Saturday, July 29, 2023, with an opening reception and happy hour scheduled for Thursday, June 8, from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm.

Dosage Magazine

HANG TIME GROUP EXHIBITION AT BRIDGETTE MAYER GALLERY
By Allan Lane / June 6, 2023

Hang Time is a vibrant summer group show with an exciting lineup of West Coast artists whose works span various mediums and scales.

Bridgette Mayer Gallery is delighted to announce the arrival of Hang Time. This exciting new summer group exhibition captures the exhilaration and joy of the HangTime roller coaster and Knott’s Berry Farm in California. This captivating exhibition combines a collection of bright and innovative works by eight talented California and coastal artists.Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Voyage LA Interview 2019

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?


I never had any intention of going into the arts.  I was not the kid who grew up drawing all the time. I was into sports, skateboarding, dreaming of rock climbing, figuring out how to live as a future ski bum, etc.   I was not raised in a family that had any artists or musicians or any such role models, no funky crazy aunts or uncles – but rather all fairly status quo. I played a year of college football at Middlebury College in New England, but being California born and raised, I transferred back to college in California due to the seemingly never-ending frigid East Coast winters.  Although I ultimately graduated from Occidental College here in Los Angeles, I first spent one quarter at UC Davis. It was there where my art introduction occurred. For the general ed requirement, I needed to take a “creativity” class, and I somehow chose a black and white basic drawing course.  I honestly didn’t think about it much at the time in the sense that this could possibly be my life path.  But I was extremely fortunate to have Squeak Carnwath as my first art professor. It was one of those rare times where a person’s life is forever changed. I was both captivated and intimidated by this class and this teacher. I really felt out of my element, but at the same time, there was this magnetic, strange and even sensual energy that I was feeling.   It was all so new and unknown.

Arts Bloom in Inglewood

Arts Bloom in Inglewood
New York Times

By Sam Lubell

June 26, 2013

Over the years restless artists have established new creative districts around Los Angeles, from downtown to Santa Monica to Culver City to Chinatown. The latest is in an unlikely place: Inglewood.

This working-class city of about 110,000 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles is known for the Great Western Forum, where Magic Johnson’s Lakers took home countless titles; for Hollywood Park thoroughbred racetrack, scheduled to close at the end of the year; for amazing soul-food restaurants; and for the original Randy’s Donuts, a drive-in with a 30-foot-tall replica of, yes, a doughnut on its roof.

But in recent years, this slice of suburbia has become a haven for visual artists hoping to escape the high prices, homogeneity and elitism of more established arts districts.

Hale Art Spaces

3 Person Show at Hale Arts
Santa Monica, CA
2015

Siena Art Institute, Italy 2011


"Drawing Connections, Group Show"

The Liberty Interview

Patti Friday is a cultural arts blogger based in Toronto, Canada

Q:  Tell us your definition of an ‘Artist’?

A:  Anyone who chooses to see life with eyes and ears open, open to surprises, open to new ideas, willing to hear all sides of an issue, willing to think outside the box for solutions to everyday issues be they aesthetic, musical, business, or diplomacy, etc -  and not desirous of simply following status quo for profit or to be liked or accepted…

Q:  When did you know you were one?

A:  I am still wondering…  I guess I go back to an old quote I heard the artist Wayne Thibaud use – “please don’t call me an artist, for that is like calling a priest a saint”.  I am just an everyday painter trying to search for unique ways of seeing the world…and for me, ultimately an attempt to search for beauty, even sometimes through the grotesque or the morbid, can be a route to an underlying beauty, for it may arouse thoughts or actions in a viewer to see the world in another way so as to ignite thought or action aiming towards a greater harmony or vibration to share with the world…

Bryant Street Gallery

BRYANT STREET GALLERY
PALO ALTO, CA - 2005

Ben exhibited with the Bryant Street Gallery in Palo Alto, CA in the early 2000's.  A view of his large abstract painting can be seen as displayed in gallery center.  76"x 54" Oil on Wood Panel