Art's relentless publicity hounds are always searching for new blood, someone fresh and young who might just be the real goods. When Dunedin painter Ben Webb, ws included as one of 11 New Zealalnd artists in the 1996 Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane, he was, at 19, the youngest by some way out of the more than 100 artists.
Webb whose mother is the printmaker and art teacher Marilynn Webb, has been painting seriously almost every day for the past 10 years and talk of 'untutored genius' has been mentioned in several art quarters. What is certain however, is that Ben Webb is a significant find, someone making paintstrokes visible to electrifying effect.
David Eggleton, Deft Obbsessions, Listener