Ben Sadler
Welcome to my website!
I am an artist based in Birmingham, UK
I am represented by Taste Contemporary
Please contact Taste Contemporary for available works and sales enquiries.
For general enquiries contact:
benjaminmsadler {at} gmail.com
I'm currently working on my website - come back soon for information and images!
In the meantime, please visit my instagram (link below) for more works and up-to-date news!
Contemporary British Painting Prize 2026, Yorkshire Artspace: Persistence Works, Sheffield, UK (19 September - 17 October 2026); and Thames-side Studios, London, UK (6 November - 15 November 2026)
22 January - 5 March 2026
I am absolutely thrilled to announce that I am the winner of the Contemporary British Painting Prize 2026! Thanks so much to the judges Georgina Kettlewell, Katherine Lloyd and Ryan Mosley; to the selectors Daniel H Bell (winner of the 2024 prize), Emma Tod, Iain Anderson and Rachel Lancaster; to Yorkshire Artspace and Huddersfield Art Gallery, and Thames-Side Studios; to the Ken Kiff Estate for their genrous sponsorship of the prize; and to Contemporary British Painting for making it all possible.
The prize was announced on Saturday 19 September 2026 at Yorkshire Artspace: Persistence Works, Sheffield. The exhibition tours to Thames-Side Studios Gallery, London.
I am showing three works (see images above) alongside 14 other brilliant painters:
Andrew Bryant | Christopher Cook | Gwen Evans | Pippa Gatty | Mathew Gibson | Caroline Gorick | Melanie Guatelli | Christopher Hanlon | Jinyong Park | Katy Shepherd | Robert Sherratt | Michelle Ussher | Haijie Wang | Kate Wilson
If you would like to see the exhibition you can catch it in Sheffield or London:
Huddersfield Art Gallery Curates at Yorkshire Artspace: Persistence Works, Sheffield, S1 2BS.
19 September – 17 October 2026
Thames-Side Studios Gallery, Thames-Side Studios, Harrington Way, Warspite Road, Royal Borough of Greenwich, London SE18 5NR
5 – 15 November 2026
Ways of Looking, Taste Contemporary, Geneva
22 January - 5 March 2026
Taste Contemporary is pleased to present Ways of Looking, a solo exhibition of small paintings by British painter Ben Sadler. Here, the artist is showing, for the first time, all twenty-four portraits from his 2024 series, You and I, alongside a selection of more recent works. Quietly compelling and poignant, these portraits of imagined people at exhibitions are rich in meaning.
As viewers, we are drawn into their world; who are they, where do they come from, what thoughts are going through their minds? Sometimes meeting our gaze, sometimes looking away, they appear pensive and reflective. Lost in their own thoughts, these figures possess a quiet and timeless quality.
Charming, and sometimes amusing, they suggest eclectic states of mind and varying degrees of intrigue. For Sadler, the starting point for these works was the idea of ‘the different layers of things happening at an exhibition opening, where there’s the work, there’s the space, there’s the person in the space, and then there’s that shared space of talking to each other.’
'You and I' available now!
My new publication, 'You and I', is available now from all good bookstores!
Published by Hurtwood
'Ben Sadler’s colourful paintings of imaginary people are full of personality, eclectic states of mind and varying degrees of intrigue. These are consistently charming, sometimes amusing and occasionally heart-breaking portraits of ordinary and extraordinary people. The publication features two bodies of work: You and I (2024) and Exclamations! (2023), both of which present small paintings corresponding to each letter of the alphabet (though the letters U and I are curiously missing from the series You and I). Sadler’s starting point was the idea of visitors to an imaginary exhibition – who are they, what kinds of people are they, and what thoughts might be going through their minds? Such musings are explored in celebrated Birmingham-based author Catherine O’Flynn’s text – a piece of creative writing commissioned especially for the publication, along with a foreword by Deborah Kermode, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham, and an interview by London-based creative coach, podcaster and public speaker Ceri Hand. Born in Birmingham (UK) in 1977, where he lives and works today, Ben Sadler studied at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford, and the Royal College of Art, London. He is one half of the artist duo Juneau Projects, alongside Philip Duckworth.'