Ben Orkin

About
Ben Orkin (b. 1998; Cape Town, South Africa) is a ceramic sculptor based in Cape Town, South Africa. His vessels reflect an organic language formed between his relationships with clay and the body, including queer intimacy that oscillate between moments of nourishment and dependency, validation and resistance, love and separation. Their textured finish is evidence of the hand-builder’s careful touch, imbuing the sculptures with a sense of the tactile and, at times, the erotic.
Orkin graduated in 2020 with a BFA from Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town, South Africa. Since 2019, he has held three solo exhibitions with WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, namely You told me… (2019), Extra Safe (2021) and Backrooms, Bookstores, Balconies, Meatracks and Tearooms (2023). Recent group exhibitions include Seven Contours, One Collection with MACAAL in 2025, Re/presentation of the Figure (2024; Group Auction) with Strauss&co, We, the People: 30 years of Democracy in South Africa (2024-2025) at Norval Foundation, and Significant Other (2024) at WITW x Krone in Tulbagh, Cape Town, South Africa. He was also awarded the Simon Gerson prize in 2021 with select work acquired by the A4 Foundation.
In 2022, Orkin participated in the OÖ AIR artist-in-residence program at OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH Museumstraße. His artwork is also part of the public collection OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH, Austria. Orkin has participated in various art fairs locally and internationally, including Art Cologne (2024/2023), Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2023), FNB Art Joburg (2023), NOMAD Capri 2023, Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2023), Art Joburg (2022), 1-54 London (2022), and miart Milan (2022).
Selected Press:
Ben Orkin’s sensory ceramics: safe sex, pleasure, and the stigmas of HIV by Sean O’Toole, Wallpaper*, 2022
Ben Orkin, A Language of Forms, Art Formes
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023 | Backrooms, Bookstores, Balconies, Meatracks and Tearooms - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
2021 | Extra Safe - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
2019 | You told me... - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 | Seven Contours, One Collection, MACAAL, Marrakesh, Morocco |
We, the People: 30 Years of Democracy in South Africa, Norval Foundation, curated by Liese van der Watt and supported by Carmen Joubert, Cape Town, South Africa | |
2024 | La grotte de l’amitié, La Maréchalerie centre d’art contemporain, ÉNSA Versailles, Versailles, France |
Compressing Materiality, Ebony Curated, Bordeaux House, Franschhoek | |
Significant Other - Twee Jonge Gezellen Wine Estate, Krone x WHATIFTHEWORLD, Tulbagh, South Africa | |
2023 | Fullhouse, blank projects, Cape Town |
Oh So Quiet - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town | |
2022 | Seeds of the Fig - Twee Jonge Gezellen Wine Estate, Krone x WHATIFTHEWORLD, Tulbagh, South Africa |
2021 | RESTUDIO, Cunningham Contemporary, Johannesburg |
2020 | Shaping Things, SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch |
Art Rotterdam, Nuweland, The Netherlands |
Art Fairs
Miart 2025 |
Art Cologne 2024 |
Cape Town Art Fair 2024 |
Art Cologne 2023 |
FNB Art Joburg 2023 |
NOMAD Capri 2023 |
Cape Town Art Fair 2023 |
Miart 2022 |
1-54 London 2022 |
Joburg Art Fair 2022 |
Awards
Simon Gerson Prize (2021)
Permanent Collections
OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH, Linz, Austria
A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa