Anderson Art Collective Opens Benjamin Anderson Show "Just Add Water'

Santa Barbara, CA - Anderson Art Collective will soon be awash with Benjamin Anderson's vibrant, large-scale contemporary oil paintings depicting a universe where water immerses and transforms the world we know.

The solo show 'Just Add Water' opens on Saturday, February 27 with an artist reception from 6-9pm and will continue through May 9. The reception is free and open to the public.

One of the largest pieces in the show is Spitfire a 5 ft by 14 ft oil on linen.

Trained in Florence, Italy and the SF Academy of Art University as a sculptor, Benjamin's work was first presented in the De Young Museum of Fine Arts 'Emerging Artists Exhibition' of 2001. He has been creating monumental oil paintings since 2002 and has been recognized for his portraiture by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. He was selected by Converse for a national ad campaign as their All Star artist and his work was the subject of a presentation on LondonÕs Channel 4 TV. He has shown in San Francisco, New York, Europe and a variety of venues in California. In addition to his collaboration on the MEYK Street Art Kits, which are now available in the LA County Museum of Art store and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art store, he is also a co-owner and co-curator of Anderson ART Collective.

As with all the Anderson Art Collective shows, we will donate a percentage of each sale to support non-profit endeavors. 'For 'Just Add Water' we are very proud to be associated with and donate 10% of our sales to NIKA Water', states Leigh-Anne Anderson, Director of the gallery.

'NIKA Water (http://www.nikawater.org) uses water to create clean water. By that I mean that they sell premium, bottled water and donate 100% of their profits to support clean water projects in impoverished countries. As you can read on their website, 1.1 billion people on the planet lack access to safe and affordable drinking water. Thats 20% of the global population. Over 2 million people will die this year due to unsafe drinking water and 90% of them will be children under the age of five. ÒNIKA Water invests in water projects in Kenya, Nicaragua, Uganda, Sri Lanka and most recently Haiti through Free the Children (http://www.freethechildren.com) Millennium Promise (http://www.millenniumpromise.org) and Project Concern International (http://www.projectconcern.org) which we will be supporting through the arts. Its a win/win situation as clients will receive a tax deduction while championing human rights.