Inaugural Exhibitions Featuring Artists Stylianos Schicho and V Benjamin

A Dynamic Dialogue Between Two Distinct Artistic Worlds

For “The Spectated Spectator” – the first exhibition of his work in the United States – Stylianos Schicho (b. 1977, Vienna) brings to jENSEITS a body of work that probes the fragile boundary between perception and reality. Trained at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Schicho is known for psychologically charged compositions in which figures expand, fragment, and dissolve into destabilized spatial environments. His work is held in major collections including the Albertina, Leopold Museum, and STRABAG Art Collection, and has been exhibited widely across Europe and beyond.

Schicho’s longstanding engagement with surveillance, observation, and the condition of being watched gains renewed relevance in the present. Often compared to dystopian narratives such as Orwell’s 1984, Schicho’s work is broadly understood as a reflection on social interaction, control, and perception.

Notably, this special selection of Schicho’s works will span both earlier and recent periods of his oeuvre. While the earlier paintings are more vivid and color-rich in their execution, the newer works appear increasingly reduced and graphic. One major highlight is the large-scale, eight-part work HOPSCOTCH 2.

For his exhibition entitled “Walk On the Wild Side,” V Benjamin (b. 1995, Cincinnati) offers a contrasting yet complementary visual language rooted in intuitive mark-making, symbolic fragments, and dreamlike psychological mapping. A self-taught artist who developed his practice in near-total isolation between 2018 and 2025, Benjamin’s work blends vulnerability, obsession, and transcendence – echoing the spirit of Art Brut pioneers while forging a distinctly personal vocabulary.

Through his process, which is entirely intuitive, when Benjamin begins a work, there is no plan. His paintings attempt to capture fleeting moments of thought everyone experiences. From his perspective, his works are successful when they serve as a mirror, inviting viewers to delve deeper into who they are at the core of their being and reflect on the self. What connects all of his work is urgency: The paintings do not seek elegance, they seek honesty, and they emerge at the intersection of vulnerability and nonconformity.