Gross McCleaf Gallery presents Benjamin Passione: The Way I Remember It

Location: Gross McCleaf Gallery, 123 Leverington Ave, Philadelphia, PA, 19127

January 9 – February 7

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 10th, 1pm - 4pm

Gross McCleaf Gallery is pleased to present The Way I Remember It, a new solo exhibition by Benjamin Passione. In this body of work, Passione continues his sustained exploration of memory, emotion, and the immediacy of the present moment. Allowing time and space for each painting to unfold, he balances vibrant color, fine lines, and expansive washes without forcing resolution. The works move between urgency and rest, remaining energetic - guided by intuition and feeling rather than explanation.

Passione’s approach in the studio emphasizes patience, openness, and care. “Be kinder to them, not so much on top of them as before, but the paintings paint themselves,” he reflects. “Intense but not too serious...I want to keep things vibrant and dazzling, even comical, energetic, a little hypnotizing.” The result is a body of work that remains lighthearted and intense at once.

The paintings exist as provisional moments, reflecting what he describes as “the instability of perception and emotion in the present.” Passione’s internal ruminations find their way onto his canvases, but embedded within the vivid development of each work is a long and deliberate editing process. He explains, “…most sessions are me just looking, sometimes two to three hours of work could amount to zero to three brush strokes. Usually, the bulk of the painting explodes quickly, and then there is this super, super, slow editing process that can take a year, maybe longer. I often will put the painting away for months at a time and let them fully dry, giving me a fresh start. Then I work on the painting for one to three months, put it away for one to three months, and then repeat. I try not to imagine anything. I try to be the sponge or turn on the faucet. I want to let the picture reveal itself,”.

Passione’s work resists explanation in favor of direct, felt experience. “Most people are uncomfortable with the not knowing,” he acknowledges. “But I sometimes can find comfort in the mystery. Most things are unknown. I also don’t think I succeed in this, it is just a desire of mine. Nobody sees a Van Gogh or a Monet and needs an explanation. They just immediately recognize the beauty of the picture.” The Way I Remember It invites that same openness, allowing the paintings to be encountered intuitively, without instruction, and on their own terms.

Click Here to View Exhibition

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About the Artist

Benjamin Passione was born in Willingboro, NJ in 1987. He attended life drawing classes at Moore College of Art & Design and then completed the Certificate program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. There, he studied painting under artists Bill Scott and Sidney Goodman, and was a recipient of the Lewis S. Ware Travel Scholarship. His work is in the permanent collection of Woodmere Art Museum, and The Way I Remember It is his fourth solo show at Gross McCleaf Gallery. Passione lives and works in Philadelphia with his wife, fellow artist Mickayel Thurin, and their two sons, Maurice and Maximo. Passione and Thurin were Artists in Residence of the Philadelphia Art Museum during the summer of 2023.