Ben Moore

Ben Moore (born 25 May 1978) is a British art curator, entrepreneur and artist.

He is the founder and curator of Art Below, a contemporary art organisation that places art in public spaces and has had shows in England, Germany, Japan and the United States.

He is also the founder and curator of Art Wars, an exhibition of designs based on the Imperial Stormtrooper helmets from Star Wars.

In 2021, Moore was part of the Art Wars NFT project which resulted in massive losses for the purchasers of the NFTs and claims of copyright theft from artists whose physical work was reproduced without their permission.

Moore was born and raised in England, and attended Emanuel School in London.

He studied film production at university.

His father was an officer in the Royal Marines.

Moore founded Art Below in 2006 to present contemporary art on space traditionally used for advertising in London Underground stations.

The collective has since grown into an annual display showcasing established and emerging artists, and has collaborated with charities, universities, government and art organisations, with an aim to display progressive and provocative artwork.

For a fee, it allows artists to display their artwork on billboard space in the Underground, in line with Moore's belief that people should have the right to display their work in public.

Moore has curated and produced exhibits for Art Below in London, Berlin, Tokyo, Los Angeles and New Orleans.

Art Below exhibits have included works by Banksy, Alison Jackson, Charles Bronson, Ben Eine, Antony Micallef, Mat Collishaw, Julie Umerle, Sarah Maple, Johan Andersson, Polly Morgan, Billy Childish, and Julie Verhoeven.

The exhibit was composed of works that had appeared in Art Below exhibits over the past 15 years, since its inception in 2006.

In 2010, Art Below, in collaboration with Art Barter, presented the Pillar of Art project, where advertising pillars adorned with art were placed in different neighborhoods in Berlin.

It included the works of Berlin-based artists Jonathan Monk, Uwe Henneken, Saâdane Afif, and Haralampi G. Oroschakoff.

In 2010, Art Below joined with Peace Strike to create a series of plinth art installations promoting peace in Parliament Square by the Palace of Westminster in London.

A 2010 Art Below exhibit included an installation of Banksy's work at London Bridge station which was then visited and "modified" by a graffiti artist.

The work Forgive Us Our Trespassing by Banksy was reworked and issued without the halo dripping with paint over the boy's head, to promote his film Exit Through the Gift Shop.

The public transport company Transport for London (TfL) had forbidden the inclusion of the halo on the poster, fearing it would give the impression of graffiti in the underground.

A few days after the work was up, the halo was repainted, prompting the TfL to remove the posters.

The first installation, in February 2011, was by special effects artist Tristan "Schoony" Schoonraad, who created a 3D installation depicting child soldiers.

In addition to curating the installation, Moore also created an oil painting for it.

In 2011, Art Below teamed up with the Saatchi Gallery to showcase the work of the 20 finalists of the 2011 New Sensations prize, on all the billboard space on an entire platform at the Regent's Park tube station leading up to that year's Frieze Art Fair.

In 2011, Art Below launched Art in Motion, which showcases short films and animations presented on screens in the London Underground.

Art Below has commissioned portraits to be featured as posters in the tube in tribute to Londoners including Amy Winehouse and Bernie Katz.

Art Below organized projects with the City and Guilds of London Art School, including Art Lift, where the work of students was displayed in the Kennington Underground station.

In 2013, Moore teamed up with the charity Missing People to produce Art Wars, an exhibition featuring designs based on the Imperial Stormtrooper helmets and body armour from the Star Wars films.

Fourteen artists created replicas and re-imaginings of the helmets, including Damien Hirst, D*Face, David Bailey, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Mr. Brainwash, and Yinka Shonibare.

Moore contributed to the exhibit with a melted down and crushed acrylic-capped Stormtrooper helmet.

In 2016, Moore curated Queen Themed, an exhibition of contemporary portraits of Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her 90th birthday.

Opening at The Tabernacle in London, some of the works were also displayed at London Underground tube stations.

It included work by Gavin Turk, Chris Levine, Mr. Brainwash and Goldie.

Also in 2016, Art Below celebrated 10 years of exhibitions on the London Underground by showing a selection of their posters, curated by Moore.

In 2017, as part of Art Below's subway series, Anish Kapoor's reworking of Joseph Beuys' 1974 performance art piece I Like America and America Likes Me was unveiled at Union Station in Los Angeles, California.

Kapoor titled his self-portrait I Like America and America Doesn't Like Me as a protest against the immigration policies of US President Donald Trump's administration.

In 2017, Art Below launched their first billboard event, with works by 28 artists in Los Angeles' Union Station.

The exhibition included work by Kelly "RISK" Graval, Karen Bystedt, D*Face, Alison Jackson, and Hayden Kays.

In June 2018 Art Below featured their Summer Show as part of Mayfair Art Weekend and exhibited artist work on billboards at the Hyde Park Corner tube station, along with a group show at Herrick Gallery.

In January 2019, Art Below returned to Hyde Park Corner and the Herrick Gallery.

In 2020, Art Below put on the exhibition Every Day is a Miracle at the Ad Lib Gallery in London.