Gallery provides virtual art experience

David Master wants to bring his art into people’s homes.

The ”-year-old Rutgers graduate found a way to display his art to the world without paying expensive gallery fees: He created his own gallery on the Internet, literally bringing his art into the homes of his audience.

David Master works on a new sculpture for the Internet-based BenZev Fine Art Gallery.

With the help of the Web design company Twin Powers Design, the BenZev Fine Art Gallery Website went live on Nov. 1. What makes this gallery different from other art galleries that feature Websites as supplements to their physical galleries is that BenZev is completely based on the Internet.

"When you zoom in on the photo, you can actually view [the pieces] as larger than they actually are," Master said of the online art. "In some senses, it gives you a clearer picture of what the artwork is."

The gallery features works in ceramics, clay, and other kinds of sculpture, as well as drawings and paintings, with up to five photos of each piece of art from different angles.

Off the Wall, a sculpture on the BenZev Website, is housed in David Master’s Teaneck home, where he arranges for private viewings of pieces up for sale.

"There are an infinite number of views you can look at a sculpture from," said Master, who hosts the actual art in his Teaneck home. Some of the pieces are available for viewing by appointment and for sale.

The gallery is named after Master’s father, Vincent, whose Hebrew name is Zev. Master said he proposed the name BenZev (son of Zev) as a way to combine both of their names, since his father has provided a lot of help in setting up the business side of the gallery. Vincent Master, who owned an industrial machinery company for more than ‘0 years, said he’s helped his son with the logistics of BenZev Fine Art Gallery Inc., but David Master is "the main man."

"He’s been creating works as long as I can remember," Vincent Master said. "He’d like regular people to have the pleasure of having art in their home. He would like people to genuinely experience art."

Vincent Master adamantly downplayed his role in the company and said he had even protested including his own name in the corporation, but David Master said his father has been "an integral part in helping to set up" the business side of the company.

More than 150 pieces are on display on the site. Many are Master’s own original pieces, but two other artists, Chris Dovas and Michael Gerber, like him alumni of Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts, also display their work on the site. Master said he hopes to expand the roster of artists.

While Masters was at Mason Gross, he held three solo exhibits of his own work and received first place in the "Step into the Spotlight" college-wide art contest. Last year, he received the Rutgers Hillel Award for Outstanding Commitment to Jewish Arts. His first solo exhibitions were more than 100 small sculptures on display at the Teaneck Public Library and Teaneck High School during the fall of ‘000. His work has also been displayed at the Teaneck Jewish Center.

The BenZev art gallery can be found at www.BenZevArt.com

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