Tim Bengel, in collaboration with AICAN, and in partnership with HG Contemporary, will debut a diptych titled The Empress (2018), inspired by a painting attributed to Sandro Botticelli titled Portrait of a Young Woman (Simonetta Vespucci). Bengel’s body of work was introduced to AICAN as the “aesthetic” it needed tolearn, and the “inspiration” is grounded in AICAN’s existing knowledge of historically relevant, museum-quality works from the last 500 years.

About Tim Bengel, Artist

Tim Bengel (b. 1991) is a contemporary multimedia artist based in Germany. Bengel has pioneered a technique of applying sand and gold leaf onto a prepared canvas to create intricate urban and natural landscapes. Once completed, Bengel films himself as he moves the canvas to a vertical position, allowing excess material to slide off the canvas and reveal his composition. Bengel renders found and original pictures with his sand and gold technique, transforming motifs into unique, minimalist, and expressive works. Through filming himself, Bengel captures his process with the intention to disseminate over social media, where his videos have a substantial audience, garnering up to 400 million views.

Bengel has received numerous awards including the Florence Biennale’s Lorenzo il Magnifico Special award from the President (2016). He has been awarded 1st Prize at the Art Expo Malaysia (2016), 1st Prize at the Artward International event in Munich (2014), Jugenddesignwettbewerb Hessnatur in Frankfurt (2011). Born in Ostfildern, near Stuttgart, Bengel studied philosophy and art at the University of Tübingen

in Germany.