Ben Hippen (b. 1966) is an Iowa-based painter who works primarily in acrylics, creating figurative pieces in a contemporary impressionist style.

He brings a wealth of life experience to his art. A lifelong musician and Harvard-trained composer, his career has spanned graphic design, music notation software development, teacher training for Eritrea’s Ministry of Education, medical school at the University of Iowa, residency and emergency physician practice in the San Francisco Bay Area, and, in recent years, full time caregiving for his mother.

Hippen depicts the nude human form close up, almost confrontationally, in a manner deeply influenced by his experience as a physician and by his own mental health struggles. His imagery suggests an attempt to overcome and perhaps heal profound feelings of alienation and separation, universal conditions of which both the doctor and the artist must be all too keenly aware.