Since opening its physical location in 2024, Gallery Sonder has steadily built a reputation for presenting internationally minded programming within an intimate Southern California setting. Located in Corona del Mar, the gallery operates on a rotating solo format, typically changing every 60 days, allowing each artist’s work to fully shape the space and define its atmosphere.
Currently featured is “After the Dust Settles,” by German artist Ruben Benjamin. Born in 1994 and based in Munich, Benjamin works fluidly between painting and sculpture, often dissolving the line between the two. Many of his wall-based pieces project outward with physical weight and density, prompting him to describe them as “sculptures for walls.” The phrase reflects how he sees them, not simply as images, but as constructed objects.
“Ruben’s work unfolds through experience rather than explanation,” says Gallery Sonder founder Joshua MacDonald. “What drew us to his work was the physical intelligence of the surfaces—the way material, light and force remain active long after the gesture has ended. “After the Dust Settles” holds that tension in place.”
Benjamin’s artworks center on the idea of pressure—physical, material and perceptual. The paintings carry the trace of accumulated movement, while the carved stone works reveal strata through subtraction and refining. “I work within a rough framework,” he says. “I usually know the direction I want to move in. But I’m not trying to control the result completely.”
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That balance between intention and openness guides his studio practice. His surfaces are built up with layered pigment, marble dust, stone powder and compressed air. He uses large brooms and, at times, his bare hands. Each material carries its own behavior. “With the large paintings, it’s a different kind of balance,” he explains. He often begins with smaller studies on wood before moving into larger formats. “When I move to the large scale, things become much more open. Pigments react differently, air pressure shifts the material, layers interact in unexpected ways. At that scale, you simply can’t control everything.”
Rather than eliminate unpredictability, he leaves room for it. “That’s what makes the process exciting,” he says. “The works exist somewhere between construction and erosion, between intention and reaction.”
The exhibition also introduces a new body of carved marble works, marking an important development in his practice. Stone has long held his attention. “With marble, the process can be very physical,” he says. “I work with force. The fractures are never fully predictable. Small density differences inside the stone decide where it breaks.” In this exchange, the material helps shape the outcome. “The process becomes a dialogue.”
For Benjamin, carving offers a compelling contrast to painting. Painting builds through accumulation—layer upon layer, gradually creating density. Stone carving begins in the opposite way. “You start by removing material,” he says. “Taking layers away until the form starts to emerge.” He was drawn to that shift, building in one practice and revealing through reduction in the other. Across both, he remains focused on pressure, density and transformation.
Visually, Benjamin’s work carries references to geological formations and atmospheric conditions, alongside the heightened saturation associated with contemporary digital imagery. He describes it as atmospheric rather than representational. “Sometimes it feels like I’m painting landscapes,” he says. “But I’m not interested in depicting nature one-to-one. It’s more like a distant memory of nature, something that reminds you of a formation or a horizon, without a clear reference.”
From a distance, the works can appear almost digital. Viewers occasionally assume they are prints or manipulated images. He enjoys watching people when they see his work for the first time. The color transitions and light effects often feel so precise that the handmade process is not immediately obvious. As viewers move closer, their perception begins to shift.
Up close, the layered construction becomes visible. The surfaces are composed of countless tiny pigment particles. Gradients, shadow zones, and subtle tonal transitions create the sense that light is emanating from within the work rather than resting on its surface. “I’m interested in that moment,” Benjamin says, “when the work stops being read as an image and starts to feel spatial and atmospheric.” If viewers experience depth, calm, and a quiet intensity, he considers the piece successful.
The exhibition is Benjamin’s first solo presentation in the U.S., an experience he describes as meaningful on both a personal and professional level. California, in particular, has long felt familiar to him. “It has this strange sense of nostalgia,” he admits, despite having grown up in Europe.
For Gallery Sonder, “After the Dust Settles” reinforces its commitment to presenting artists whose practices move across materials and disciplines. For Benjamin, it marks the beginning of a new phase, one shaped by exchange: with material, with place and with viewers encountering his work in person.
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