Jesse Benson's "Escalator" Explores Guilt and Masculinity at Gene's Dispensary, Los Angeles

Jesse Benson's exhibition "Escalator" is on view at Gene's Dispensary in Los Angeles. In notes accompanying the show, Benson described it as "a show for dark times." The exhibition takes the escalator as a metaphor for commerce, upward mobility, and the corporate ladder, and reflects on escalating global tensions and personal anxieties. Benson was born and raised in Orange County, California, a region saturated with shopping malls and consumer culture. The show includes his Delicacy Paintings, made from Band-Aids on panels, which address pain, vulnerability, and the impulse to mend others' suffering, and his Compartmentalization Paintings, which are conceptual hyper-realistic works. The two bodies of work are presented in harmonious tension. The sculptures in the exhibition carry weighted implications and, according to the review, imply the viewer. The review was written by Keith J. Varadi and dated September 2026. The exhibition is at Gene's Dispensary, Los Angeles.