Ben Heine

Ben Heine at Brussels Accessible Art Fair

The artworks in this series usually show a hand-drawn 2D sketch held and photographed by the artist in a specific location.[26] They combine photography and drawing to infuse ordinary scenes with new surreal, visionary, or romanticized narratives.[27] The inclusion of hand-held penciled sketches over a portion of the original photos allows Heine to enhance reality and open doors to an imaginary world.[28] Heine brought some innovations to the concept in 2012 adding colors and black paper.[29] Between 2010 and 2016, Heine's creations have been seen by the people through the exhibitions and news articles in major media outlets.[30] Heine's first Pencil Vs Camera's images quickly gained popularity online[31] and received positive criticisms from specialized and influential art sites along with news reports and international opportunities for the artist.[32]

Some of primary and secondary public schools that are teaching Heine's Pencil Vs Camera concept are "International School of Beijing",[33] "ColegioMenor in Quito", "Dover College", "Ecole Lamartine",[34] "Ecole de Scorbé-Clairvaux",[35] "Ecole Renaudeau", "Collège La Bruyère Sainte Isabelle" and others.[36] Since 2012, many other creators and artists have borrowed from Heine's innovations to create various forms of similar 3D artworks.[37]

Flesh and Acrylic live performance at Brussels Natural Science Museum

This series started in 2011, Heine creates abstract acrylic paintings on large wooden panels.[38] In the finished work it is at first difficult to tell where the human figure ends and the background "canvas" begins, both blending together into one surreal abstract vision.[39] He takes pictures of the final composition so that they can be printed and exhibited later on. Heine made his first "Flesh and Acrylic" project with model Caroline Madison in 2011 for a documentary filmed by Italian director Davide Gentile.[40] Between 2012 and 2015, Heine made several Flesh and Acrylic live performances.[41]

Ben Heine during an exhibition of Digital circlism

This is the name Heine has given to a whole new creative technique he has developed in 2010.[42] It is a mix between Pop Art and Pointillism.[43] In this project, Heine usually makes portraits of celebrities/cultural icons[44] with digital tools using flat circles on a black background. Each circle has a single color and a single tone.[45] Trends Hunter said about Digital Circlism: "Through the use of graphic software and a whole lot of creativity, Ben Heine is able to create iconic faces from history and pop culture by drawing circles of various sizes and colors. In order to give them a dynamic and 3-dimensional appearance".[46] The artist stated he has been making portraits for over 15 years but it wasn't very long ago that he started developing this original technique.[47] "As I've been working with digital tools recently, this came quite naturally, and I'm a big fan of Pop Art and Pointillism. Digital Circlism is a modern mix of them".[48]

Heine says he is influenced by Belgian Surrealism,[49] German Expressionism,[50] American Pop Art,[51] and Social Realism.[52] Abduzeezo says about Heine: "His galleries are filled with great stuff and he can walk beautifully between several art directions, creating amazing pieces in any way he goes".[53]

Traditionally trained in journalism and communications at IHECS Journalism School, Heine tried his hand at political cartoons because he wanted to connect his interest in art with his studies in Journalism. This brief encounter was far less charitable to him than he had hoped. His political activism, at the cusp of his youth, unleashed a string of criticism and threats. In the end, Heine felt it was perhaps wiser to walk away from political cartoons in 2009.[7]

At IHECS, international politics professor Paul Delmotte gave Heine pro-Palestinian information throughout his studies.[54] In 2006, at the end of his scholarship and just after the Muhammad cartoon contest controversy, Heine made a master's final assignment, which included a detailed investigation about the "Limits of Freedom of Expression in Political Cartooning". At that time, Heine was also member of many cartoonists and activists associations. These organizations and particularly "Iran Cartoon" requested that he participates in a competition calling for provocative Holocaust-related images sponsored by the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri[55] as an answer to the Muhammad cartoon contest.

Heine's participation in this contest lead to controversy. Due to the pro-Palestinian nature of several of his older political art, he received some criticisms for his views on the Middle Eastern political situation and specifically for some images about Israel and Zionism. Because of this, Heine decided to completely stop creating political cartoons in 2009 and to focus on his own art. He also asked all websites that published his political images to permanently remove them because he said these drawings lacked nuance and intelligence and they kept generating confusion about his evolution as a non-political artist. He also said he made such mistakes because he was too young and didn't have objective information.[55]

Heine wrote an open letter in 2010 to beg pardon to the Jewish Community, to express his regrets and apologize for the mess and pain this event had generated.[55] He made clear he was against revisionism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia.[56] He also explained the academic context in which he was, how cartoon organizations had manipulated his drawings, how he lost control of the situation and how much this issue had caused him troubles.[55] Since 2009, Heine has firmly distanced himself from all activists' organizations.[7][56]