Artist by night, Dentist by day – Ben Mollner aka “Dr. Ben” has been developing a unique style of art over the last 20 years and currently owns and operates Dark White Gallery – a 6000 square foot immersive art gallery in the heart of Denver’s Santa Fe Art District.
Defined by bold graphic imagery, bright colors, hard lines, and a touch of electricity – Mollner composes completely analog artworks that blur the lines between digital graphic design, and traditional art techniques.
With a heavy background in graphic design, Mollner uses photographic and digital techniques and translates them into physical artworks that retain the graphic style but are presented through a combination of paint, ink, latex, wood, aluminum, plexiglass, and frequent use of LED lighting. Often consisting of a central character – frequently a female form or animal surrounded by floral elements, nature, science and complex machinery.
“Blissfully Ignorant,” Mollner is a self-taught artist with no formal training, using graphic design to create bold images that tell a visual story.
“I used to hide my lack of art education, fearing I would come off as ignorant when surrounded by my contemporaries. Over time, I have found that my influences have come from life and self-experimentation rather than a teacher or a classroom, which I believe has led me to create artwork that is uniquely mine.”
As a teen, Mollner would create a series of different graphic designs each month, and then would select his favorite image to convert into a large-scale hand-painted artwork on canvas. With a goal of finishing a new one-of-a-kind piece each month, prolific habits began to define his early style.
“I had all these paintings sitting around and decided to hold an art show when I was going through dental school. Each painting was like one of my babies, so I priced them high enough so that no one would want to buy them. In the meantime, I began taking some of my digital designs straight to print without painting them, and then selling them for much less because they didnt take a whole month to complete. But I didnt want them to look like prints, so I made each one custom with hand-built frames or unique mounting arrangements.”
This was the birth of Mollner’s second phase of art – consisting of heavy use of large scale print techniques and matching them with even more unique presentations. Now moving into complex, multilayered plexiglass arrangements, with internal illumination as well as free-standing or hanging sculpture.
With the opening of Dark White Gallery in 2022, Mollner’s work has grown in scale thanks to a large warehouse gallery and studio that can support the size. Dark White Gallery holds a monthly opening for the public on the First Friday of each month that coincides with the Art District’s monthly Art Walk. The event is currently free to the public and typically commands 2,000-4,000 visitors over the course of the evening.
Outside of the gallery, Mollner’s work can be seen at the Hotel Monaco in downtown Denver with his work in all 181 guest suites, as well as numerous city projects including a 150-wide mural along Cherry Creek bike path directly south of the Cherry Creek Mall.
“Dr. Ben” also practices dentistry full-time at Mollner Dentistry near Denver’s Capitol Building.
::Our vision for the future is an immersive art gallery that aims to bring viewers into the artwork itself and continue to evolve larger and more intricate forms of expression::
