We all have secrets. Some are harmless and disappear like loose change in the cushions of the couch. Others are more embarrassing, the type we’d like to erase from our memories. Unfortunately, life’s not that simple. Secrets often slip from the mouths of the people entrusted to keep them. Whether whispered at cocktail parties or transmitted across time zones during late-night phone conversations, secrets travel in a manner all their own. It’s a rather compelling social phenomenon, and a perfect example of the type of scenario that piques the interest of a curious observer like Ben Tour.

The Vancouver-based painter and illustrator—who has forged a successful career translating his fascination with human behavior into beautifully dense character portraits—can best be described as a sort of visual anthropologist. For the better part of a decade, Tour has catalogued and archived an oddly fascinating gallery of characters assembled from scraps of truth and fiction gathered from everyday life.

“I would describe it as a visual diary of characters and personalities,” says the 29-year-old Toronto-born artist in reference to his work. “My approach is different every time. But yeah, I steal parts of different things and bring them together—interesting people both real and imagined, and animals and objects they connect with that are visually appealing. I think my most successful work has a definite mystery to it that lets the viewer interpret their own story.”

While viewer interpretation does play a major role in the way Tour’s work is received, personal connection is equally important. The abundant emotional content built into each of his pieces is at once intimidating and mesmerizing. In one portrait a bald elderly man with squinty eyes, crow’s feet, and beak-like nose peers out from behind a pair of oversized black-rimmed glasses. His gaze is skeptical but fixed, as though he’s sizing up an unseen adversary. Another depicts a sullen woman, sitting alone beside two deer and an old typewriter, crimson-colored flowers scattered at her feet. The expression on her face is cold and detached, and the bowed arch of her spine seems to reveal volumes of grief.

Tour’s uncanny ability to capture these subtle gestures and waning expressions with his feverish strokes and emotive lines forms the foundation of a distinctive style. Most importantly, however, his choice of subjects is what intimately informs the direction of each piece. Rarely are the men in his portraits handsome or confident; instead they may appear corpulent and misguided, emaciated and overwrought, too concerned with their own neuroses to be guided by the notion of societal norms.

Tour’s female subjects, however, are portrayed in a much different light. Flaws and imperfections are, for the most part, hard to discern at first glance. Pouty lips and long sensual necklines punctuate attractive, symmetrical faces. Thin arms and long slender legs appear designed intently for Fashion Week runways. But closer scrutiny, particularly focusing on the eyes, hints at a more complicated reality lurking beneath each subject’s surface.

“It’s all in the eyes,” Tour explains. “If the character is looking right at you, they want your attention. Look away, and they take you with them. I try to make the females look strong and fragile—one emotion for each eye.

“The human figure has always been my thing,” he adds. “As a kid I always started my drawings from the eyes and worked outwards. They always seemed like the most important part of a person. [Then] I got really serious about drawing [while] in high school—I was constantly doodling—and just haven’t stopped.”

Secrets Travel

Dave Kinsey and Jana DesForges, the brain trust behind BLK/MRKT Gallery in Culver City, first stumbled across Ben Tour’s artwork by accident.

“I first spotted it in an email attachment,” DesForges, BLK/MRKT’s director remarks about the unsolicited find. “It was a promotion for a new line of snowboards. The artwork was very teeny, but caught my eye nonetheless. I [then] emailed the company and eagerly tracked him down.”

DesForges’ email discovery lead to Tour’s first-ever solo exhibition, 2005’s highly lauded A Sneaking Suspicion. Prior to that, Tour had primarily exhibited in group shows across Canada and the United States. But now with the support of BLK/MRKT, a gallery known for showcasing the boundary-pushing work of artists like Jeff Soto, Jose Parla, and Tiffany Bozic, Tour has been able to demonstrate the full spectrum of his skill and vision. Secrets Travel, Tour’s second solo exhibition at BLK/MRKT, opened to an anticipatory crowd this past spring.

“The response to Ben’s work has been overwhelming from the start,” DesForges says. “His portrait studies have an immediate emotional resonance, a deep, almost ethereal quality that really provokes a reaction from the viewer. It’s been a pleasure to introduce him to the States. His work for Secrets Travel was nearly all pre-sold to collectors who had been waiting for his return to BLK/MRKT since his first [show]. Not bad for such a young artist.”

“In terms of categorization, I suppose I’d call [Ben’s work] part of a wave of new contemporary artists influenced by illustration, design, music, and the state of world affairs,” DesForges adds. “There is also an obvious reverence for the craftsmanship and daring of fine artists and iconoclasts have come before them. The freedom of live painting and street art has spread a certain joie de vivre through the movement as well. Ben’s work, in particular, leans toward post-illustration, recalling such artists as Ralph Steadman and Egon Schiele.”

The term post-illustration is a good starting point in examining Tour’s work. His large-scale paintings and installations, like the pieces crafted for his Secrets Travel and A Sneaking Suspicion exhibitions, originate as sketches that are enriched and manipulated using a layer-by-layer method. A process that Tour admits can be rather time-consuming.

“My pieces are pretty labor intensive and take a while to make, which has been on my mind a lot lately,” he says. “The process begins with a really detailed sketch done with ballpoint pen and Wite-Out. I resize this sketch on a photocopier and transfer it to a panel, where I begin painting loosely with watered-down acrylic, inks, spray paint, whatever. Then from the OG sketch I copy the final ink outline once everything dries. That’s what takes the time.”

The time Tour invests in each painting and illustration is evidenced in the technical complexity of the pieces. Frenetic lines, swaths of color, and intimate angles all convey a sense that Tour may not only be drawing inspiration from the lives of strangers he observes, but manifesting his own personal experiences as well. While this may or may not be true, the emotional content in each portrait is palpable. This perceived notion of creation and catharsis is paired well with the immediate voyeuristic allure of Tour’s characters.

“I think my most successful work has a definite mystery to it that lets the viewer interpret their own story, as well as intrigue them,” he explains. “Secrets Travel definitely [embodied] that mystery. The show was a collection of drawings and paintings I worked on for the last six months [of 2006]. It really felt like a continuation from [my] first show, an introduction of sorts of new characters. There was no real change of direction in subject matter or technique. I definitely feel a strong need to change up my mediums and approach in the coming year. Can’t just rest on [my] laurels.”

Home Sweet Home

“I drink a hell of a lot of beer in the seven days that make a week,” confesses Tour, when asked if there are any bad habits he just can’t kick. “I’m really fitting that Canadian hoser stereotype, aren’t I?”

Since agreeing or disagreeing with a Canadian regarding his hoser status seems rude, our conversation make a subtle switch in gears.

“When I’m not working, I’m usually hanging out somewhere in the building where my studio is located,” he says. “It’s an old building with lots of history and good people who are making art and taking advantage of the cheap rent [especially] before all the beautiful old buildings downtown get bought up by contractors and turned into ‘artist lofts.’ Everywhere you look in Vancouver there’s construction as the 2010 Olympics creep closer. It’s a lot like Blade Runner, always raining and construction everywhere.”

Born in Toronto, Tour headed west to Vancouver in 2000 after graduating from the Illustration Program at Sheridan College, where he quickly set up shop in a downtown studio space.

“Vancouver is beautiful. I love living here,” he says. “[But] there are pros and cons to making a living in this city, as commercial opportunities are limited. It’s a great place to make art and be creative, but lousy to make a living from art sales, which is why most of the talent moves away pretty quick.”

While the lack of commercial opportunities has at times proven challenging, it’s never been a major concern for Tour. He has often strayed from pursuing traditional corporate work to focus his energy on nurturing his fine art.

“In Toronto, there were a lot of people around me doing the same thing upon graduation from art school,” he says. “Everyone was looking for commercial art jobs to pay the bills and all I wanted to do was keep making my art, which was trained interpretive illustration. I felt much more inspired by fine art but didn’t know anything about it or how to even approach galleries—which left me a little confused. So I worked [a lot of] crappy jobs [while continuing] to make little paintings and sketchbook drawings.”

Tour overcame his lack of gallery knowledge with the diligence of a workaholic. First he began showing in group exhibitions around Canada. At the same time he worked as an editorial illustrator, primarily contributing to Vancouver’s Color magazine where he is still on staff. Curators in the States began taking notice and included his work in larger group exhibitions. Finally BLK/MRKT came calling, an opportunity that has helped broadcast his work to a considerably larger audience.

“This isn’t a choice for me, it’s my way of life,” Tour says, referring to his career path thus far. “I don’t really have control over it, so the times I’ve had to work at a job that took me away from art really sucked. But I’m sure everybody on this planet feels that way. We all want to do what we love.”

“Just having the good fortune of being able to do this right now is a blessing,” he adds. “When you think about all the crazy shit that’s going on everywhere, making art is probably the last thing on a lot of peoples’ minds as opposed to just surviving.”

While staying busy may seem an obsession for Tour, he did take a much-needed break from his hectic schedule this past March, following the opening of Secrets Travel, to set off on a three-month respite to Southern Mexico and Guatemala. The sojourn was as much a vacation for the young artist as it was an opportunity to recharge for the busy year ahead. While he and his fiancé plan a wedding, a new slew of gallery shows are also looming on the horizon, slated to open in Seattle, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. When asked if he’d like to expound upon his earlier confessions Tour does his best to take the high road.

“Ugh, my mom’s going to read this,” Tour jokes. “I don’t really want to get heavy into those apocalyptic drinking bouts on the grimy streets of Vancouver. Let’s just say the best nights were forgotten and prison is a distant memory.”