Louis Buhl & Co. is pleased to present a solo exhibition with Detroit-based artist James Benjamin Franklin, titled Notes and opening October 24, 2026. For his first show with the gallery, Franklin presents new works on paper and ceramic sculptures that leverage the materials’ unique ability to act as an adaptable site for material experimentation.
Like his large-scale paintings, Franklin’s processes on paper and with clay are largely improvised and intuitive. Rather than working toward a predetermined result, he follows gesture, texture, and instinct, allowing each piece to develop through a rapid process of discovery where uncertainty remains a driving force. Because paper feels inherently less precious at the onset, however, it allows Franklin to move quickly and with greater freedom, using materials that feel less precious than those associated with painting. The ceramics carry a similar spirit, cultivating an alchemy between the two methods where material and color transform in unpredictable, revelatory ways.
The sense of immediacy fosters a level of risk and experimentation difficult to achieve on canvas, balanced by a distinct control inherent to working at a more intimate scale. While the modest dimensions of his mediums engage less of Franklin’s full body—eliminating the physical variables of his larger canvases—they allow Franklin to work with greater velocity, twisting, turning, and shaping the substrates as he reacts in real time to the shifting pigment and mass.
Such speed and physical control yield entirely new marks and textures difficult to attain on a larger scale, introducing an agile vocabulary of line, form, and surface. New questions are prompted for the artist, inspiring ideas for his paintings, and establishing a generative dialogue where the three bodies of work continuously shape each other. Although works on paper have appeared throughout Franklin’s exhibitions in the past, Notes brings this critical dimension of his practice into full focus for the first time. The pieces should not be interpreted as studies or preparatory works, but rather as fully realized works in their own right. Significantly, ceramics are a new element of Franklin’s practice, with Notes marking the first time he will exhibit work of this kind.
Unintentionally, the sensibility of Southern California, where the artist grew up, also finds its way into the body of work. Franklin’s attention to texture, atmosphere, and landscape echoes the environment around him—the mountains, desert, and ocean—without direct depiction. These environments emerge through the physical surfaces, rapid gestures, and shifting textures of the mediums, operating as an intuitive undercurrent throughout his process.
James Benjamin Franklin: Notes is on view from October 24, 2026 through January 7, 2027 at Louis Buhl & Co.