Ben Elliott is an artist, who through etching and wood engraving, seeks to diagnose landscapes as vessels of memory.
Ben trained at the Edinburgh College of Art and read art history and literature at York. He will be exhibiting his work at the Royal Scottish Academy in December.
To wander through a landscape is to construct a sentence - memory emerges through movement, shaped by the grammar of experience. Only in retrospect do we insert punctuation into scattered impressions, forming a sense of place and, in that moment, a sense of self. Punctuating a shifting landscape - be it with a comma or full stop - is an act of meaning-making. It transforms movement through space into a sequence of remembered moments, allowing us to define and memorialise place.
Through the rhythmic tactility of etching and wood engraving, Ben sees both printmaking and walking as acts of punctuation - each mark a step in recollection. His work is inspired by modernist artists and writers who questioned how space shapes the human condition.
Ben’s work is shaped by the landscapes he roams and the literature he admires.
Exhibitions:
‘The Thread that Pulls’: Visual Arts Scotland Biennial Exhibition, December 2025 - January 2026 | Royal Scottish Academy