His inspiration are the neighborhoods of the former industrial areas of Northern Ohio, almost empty by the crisis in the industry started at the end of the 1970s. In his works, there is an in-depth study of the perspective, but also nostalgia and concern by a polarized capitalism. Countryside homes who draws Ben Grasso (1979) desmiembran in the air. Painted wood tables fall from above as toothpicks. The reason? In the majority of cases, unknown.

In the hands of the American painter constructions seem to sheets of paper. My work is an investigation of the American landscape. I seek not represent something impossible or particularly, but something that may happen or not: a reimagined vision of what already exists. He works in Brooklyn (New York), but he was born in Cleveland, Ohio, a State whose northern area was noted for its heavy industry. Grasso often ponders the fragility of structures and short active life that have had many of the houses of the area in which he grew up. The construction and destruction of the belt’s oxide in the years seventy and eighty, the so-called rust belt (Rustbelt) suffered a profound economic crisis by the rise in the price of fuel, the closure of factories to cheaper countries or States and foreign competition.

It was a similar fate to the automotive industry in Detroit, also included in this belt: there are neighborhoods where tens of thousands of people lived and which are now nearly empty. I often visit these places. There is something fascinating in the image of an empty House and foot. Oil paintings by Grasso are also a proof of the perspective setting. The houses are sometimes viewed from chopped planes, on top of a few trees. Other times made him attend the destruction in a flat shots from the floor and stick the viewer into the soil. I want to extend the line in space, painted in such a way that it embraces and abuse at the same time of the laws of perspective. In their games construction and destruction there is a background of nostalgia for a lost landscape and concern by a polarized capitalism: I think in the time taken to compose these places and how fast it disappeared. I have read that the Ohio steel is recycled to build bridges in China. A great economy failed builds another economy also destined for failure. Global capitalism needs this type of cannibalism to operate. Source of the news: houses flying through the air.