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The Exquisite Elevation and Engagement of Routine Rituals: A conversation with Ezra Benus
interview by Alexandria Deters for Eazel, May 2nd 2020 AN ARMY OF THE SICK CAN’T BE DEFEATED: REFLECTIONS ON CARE WORK IN PERPETUAL SICK TIMES Visual AIDS April 2020 Web Gallery. guest essay and curatorial collaboration with Noah Benus. Curator talk video with captions and verbal descriptions of images discussed. Lutte Collective April 2020 Featured Artist Interview and images with description. Rituals: Ezra Benus, Romily Alice Walden, Yo-Yo Lin Laurie M. Tisch Gallery, JCC Manhattan 2/27-4/13/20 The artists in this exhibition reconfigure what constitutes and marks the mundaneness of the everyday through ritual, tapping into embodiments of living with illness and disability to create a never-ending flow of curiosity and contemplation. The range of works presented are linked to the enduring legacy of exercising rituals to hold meaning and structure for living in a complex and chaotic world. curated by Ezra Benus Video recording of panel discussion for ReelAbilities Film Fest with artists Yo-Yo Lin and Rose Buchwald McGlennon. Verbal description of images presented, and with captions. Artists in Residence, Wave Hill Winter Workspace 2020 session 1, Jan 2- Feb 18 2020 review of residency in Riverdale Press, Jan 26 2020, by Raphael Lassauze "Ezra Benus, is more concerned with the foundations of society at large, like disability. Specifically, he utilizes pills in order to create a pallet by which his artwork reflects the aesthetics of medicine to create abstract paintings. “This conception of a sick person as weak is disablement from society,” Benus said, “not from something that’s wrong with me.” Benus’ use of abstraction, in his words, help concepts like intimacy, pain and time find a space in the visual, but also tangible.“I’ve been experimenting with a more physical and textile method to show my work,” Benus said. “My work is sight-driven, which is inaccessible to those who are visually impaired. So a more tactile piece of art is more inclusive.” My Body Is The House That We Live In Gibney 9/25-10/10 The exhibition reconsiders ways that disabled people exist in terms of portrayals of relationships with the self and others. It opposes limited and reductive portrayals that disabled people are thought of as being reliant on and taking from others. It is a rumination on the interconnectedness and intimacy between one’s own body and its relationship to others. A visual art exhibition featuring Robert Andy Coombs, Elektra KB, Alex Dolores Salerno, Jaklin Romine, Joselia Hughes, Brothers Sick (Ezra and Noah Benus). Curated by Ezra Benus TALK BACK, Flux Factory co-curated by Lexy Ho-Tai and moira williams 5/9-6/2/19 The New York Times, New York Art Galleries: What To See Right Now. "...a group show at Flux Factory filled with works across media that treat disability not only as subject matter, but also as an aesthetic principle.Take Shannon Finnegan, who has used her art practice to call attention to the physical hostility of cultural spaces. Ms. Finnegan contributed benches that are hand-painted with pointed, pithy texts: “This exhibition has asked me to stand for too long,” one says. While she makes new functional objects, Ezra Benus has taken pre-existing ones, including a shower chair and massager, and arranged them to form “You shall rejoice,” a sculpture of suggestive sparingness." - Jillian Steinhauer Crip Impoderabilia, NYU Gallatin Galleries curated by Bojana Coklyat 4/18/19-5/1/19 Town Hall: Art, Disability, Labor, at Brooklyn Museum In honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, a town hall exploring the intersections of art, disability, and labor, organized in partnership with Art Beyond Sight and the Fair Wages Task Force as part of the For Freedoms 50 State Initiative. For Freedoms builds on existing networks of artists and institutions in the United States, producing nationwide public art installations, exhibitions, and local community dialogues in order to inject nuanced, artistic thinking into public discourse in the lead-up to the midterm elections.October 21, 2018. Curated by Ezra Benus Means of Egress, at Dedalus Foundation, Industry City Curated by Lisa Dent, Means of Egress includes explorations by artists participating in the Art and Disability Residency (ADR) of Art Beyond Sight. The exhibition reveals the breadth of ideas and processes that emerged from the cohort.After making careful aesthetic and technical choices, each artist creates work that emanates from a position of power not paralysis. The resulting exhibition represents the diversity within their community. October 4-November 1, 2018. Locus: Art as a Disabled Space The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation and The 8th Floor partnered with 2016 Foundation grantee Art Beyond Sight to present Locus: Art as a Disabled Space. This exhibition featured works by Ezra Benus, Jordana Bernstein, Kevin Quiles Bonilla, Shannon Finnegan, Jeff Kasper, and Madison Zalopany, who all participated in Art Beyond Sight’s Art & Disability Residency. Curated by Ezra Benus Accessibility Workshop for Curators+, York College Fine Art Gallery, organized by No Longer Empty In conjunction with the inaugural Southeast Queens Biennial: A Locus of Moving Points, the 2017 NLE Curatorial Lab has organized an Accessibility Workshop for Curators, Gallery Directors and Arts Organizers. The evening will feature presentations by artist Ezra Benus and Ariel Willmont, Director of Fountain House Gallery. Ezra Benus: Disabilities, Art, & Jewishness, Princeton University Guest lecture at Princeton University, co-sponsored by Alliance of Jewish Progressives and the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Understanding. Access/Points: Approaches to Disability Arts Part 2: Roundtable Discussion on Disability Arts at CUE Art Foundation. NYC. SPARK Disability Arts Festival, 11/27-12/8/2017. Exhibiting at Studio C Gallery and Alberta College of Art and Design, Main Hall. Calgary, Alberta, Canada. “Strijd ∞ - a Performative Exhibition.” Art for the Sake of Democracy, Issue 16 (2017): 133-141. Benus, E., Breugelmans, T., Buta, C., Eckenhaussen, S., Kerchman, A., Lerm Hayes, C.M, Rhodes, E., Smalen, J., Sperling, F., “A Showcase: 12 Jewish Artist-Educators You Should Know”, Sight Line Magazine, Covenant Foundation, October 18, 2017, Online. “Sculpture, 'Zines, and The Book of Jonah: BIMA’s Artists’ Beit Midrash”, Sight Line Magazine, Covenant Foundation, October 16, 2017, Online. Breaking Silences, Demanding Crip Justice: Sex, Sexuality, and Disability 9/22-24/2017. Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. Exhibiting artist at the conference; exhibited three works from the Sex/Help series. Per Forma: Transition and Identity 12/8-9/2016. Performance of "לֹך לֹך/Go Forth/Go To Yourself" Collaboration with Anna Korbasova (Proteus Aa) at Fylkingen, Stockholm, Sweden. 'Per Forma' was a two–day event exploring the relationship between contemporary performance art, theatre and their audiences. 'Per Forma' was curated by Alice Maselnikova as part of a degree project within Curating Art, International Master's Programme at Stockholm University. The project was presented in collaboration with Europa Direkt Intercult and Fylkingen Studios. Hej Hej PALS Performance Art Festival 10/16/2016. Performance of “Fourth Text” with Anna Korbasova (Proteus Aa) at Fylkingen, Stockholm, Sweden. Strijd ∞ (Curator) Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2/25/2015-ongoing Art History students added the Strijd ∞ exhibition to the visual culture of the Maagdenhuis protest/occupation until the eviction of all protesters, and afterwards was exhibited throughout Europe. Cult. Magazine, Issue #5 pp. 23, Winter 2014/2015, New York The Doping Agency: Second Show (xWhy Empire) 08/20/2014, Ella Lounge, New York Muse Scholars Showcase (Curator and exhibitor) 03/25/2014, CUNY Hunter College, New York Muse Scholars Inaugural Showcase (Curator and exhibitor) 05/08/2013, CUNY Hunter College, New York SWITCH 05/08-5/17/2012, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem Forty exchange students from 13 countries, including two Fulbright Fellows from the US, exhibit the artwork they created over the year at Bezalel in the Academy’s Fine Art Department until May 17, 2012. |
