“Nothign is Perfetc” a solo art exhibition by Benji Weeratunge at Olive and Wilde Studios

A Camden kid raised in the thick of the punk rock eighties, he spent more than twenty years as a professional dancer, choreographer, artistic director and TV personality, a career that took him from working with the choreographers behind Michael Jackson and Beyoncé, to sharing stages with Kylie and Pharrell, to becoming one of the resident stars of Fama ¡a bailar!, Cuatro’s prime time dance academy.

Then lockdown grounded him. What came out instead were the acrylics and the spray cans, and a body of work with the whole of that other life buried inside it.

A lifetime of moving in front of crowds, now moving across canvas. You can feel it in every piece.

Nothign is Perfetc brings together eleven of those works, built up in acrylic and spray paint, with hand-drawn text, comic-book cut-outs and dozens of small phrases and images tucked beneath the surface. Some are sayings that carried Benji through moments in his life. Others are borrowed or half-remembered, or things people once said to him that he never forgot.

The title is taken from one of the paintings and misspelled on purpose. “There’s never a perfect time,” says Benji. “There’s never the right amount of material, or the right size portfolio, or the exact right thing to say. It’s the fact that it’s all imperfect that makes it perfect.” He is wary of explaining too much about any single piece: “If I tell my story on a piece I’ve already planted seeds about what that piece means to them, instead of what it directly speaks to them.”

The exhibition is being held at Olive & Wilde Studios, a design-led coworking space and interior design practice in a Georgian townhouse on South Street. It is the first exhibition the studio has held at this scale. “I met Benji at a dance class earlier this year and invited him into the studio to talk about marketing, and somewhere in that conversation we realised there was far more we could do together, and that the studio could be the backdrop for his first proper solo exhibition,” says founder Laura Delage-Pandeli. “It felt like serendipity. The studio was always meant to host artists.”

The weekend opens with an invitation-only private preview on Friday 23 October, 4–9pm, followed by the public launch party on Saturday 24 October, 11am–7pm, with drinks, special guests and DJ Ricky Silkes of Britain’s Got Talent, and the artist in the room. During the run there will be a House Party evening and a Paint & Sip with the artist, with dates announced on Instagram at @hotnoodle.art

Original works and limited-edition prints are available to buy. Visitors can register for updates and events at https://oliveandwilde.myflodesk.com/hotnoodlexows