EZRA BENUS
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Note: I am working on completing Image Descriptions for every photograph on the site and appreciate your patience in this process.
Residencies, Fellowships, Awards
2022-2023 BRIClab Contemporary Art Residency, BRIC

2022 Artist2Artist Fellow, ArtMatters Foundation
2020-2021 SHIFT Artist Residency, EFA Project Space
2020 Winter Workspace Residency, Wave Hill
2018-2019 Art & Disability Residency, Art Beyond Sight
2018-2019 Brooklyn Museum, Museum Education Fellow
2017 Erich Fromm Fellow, Paideia Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

Exhibitions
2024
Towards a Warm Embrace, Print Center New York, November 7, 2024- February 8, 2025
To Hold a We, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY September 19-December 22
Towards a Warm Embrace, Perlman Teaching Museum, Carleton College, MN, January 11-April 14


2023
Interdependencies: Perspectives on Care and Resilience, Migros Museum, Zurich, Switzerland, October 6, 2023-January 21, 2024
Presents, video screening at VIVO (Vancouver) and HAU (Berlin) 
Art of Disruption, Art Prize, Juried Winner, Grand Rapids, Michigan, September 14-October 1
Chronicles of the Chronic, Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minnesota, August 26, 2023 - April 3, 2024
Tell Me Where It Hurts, Tutu Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, pop-up one night exhibition June 9, 2023

A Picture of Health: Jo Spence, a Politics of Disability and Illness, online exhibition

2022
Rainbow, Galerie Analix Forever, Switzerland, December 3, 2022-February 7, 2023
Kingdom Of The Ill at Museion, Bolzano, Italy, October 1, 2022 -March 5, 2023
Crip Ritual, Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto, Canada, February 8-April 1
Crip Ecologies: Vulnerable Bodies in a Toxic Landscape, Art Windsor Essex, Canada, February 19-May 22


2021
Crip Time, Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) Frankfurt, Germany, September 18, 2021-January 30, 2022
We Turn, EFA Project Space, SHIFT Residency Exhibition, June 18-July 17
Political Intimacy, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, NY. April 29-June 22 
Up Close: Phases and the In-Betweens, The Shed, online, January 13-February 11

2020
The Future Is Loading...  Shape Arts, UK., online exhibition, essay and visual works 
Protocols Issue #8: Contracting At The Seams: Bodiless at the Bimah

2019
My Body Is The House We Live In at Gibney Dance, pdf with more info 
TALK BACK, Flux Factory, Queens, NY, May 9-June 2 
Crip Impoderabilia, NYU Gallatin Galleries, curated by Bojana Coklyat, April 18-May 1
Many Ways To Raise a Fist, featured in Jerron Herman’s work at Whitney Museum. Jerron elaborates on the art in his dance work in Wordgathering.

2018
Means of Egress, Dedalus Foundation, October 4-November 18
Locus: Art as a Disabled Space, The 8th Floor, May 23-26

Select Press and Publications
Hyperallergic, “Artists With Disabilities Show Us How We’ve Failed”
How To Be Disabled in a Pandemic, NYU Press
Movement Research Performance Journal, Issue #57, essay, “Not Alone, Not A Loan: On Collecting and Gathering”
Kingdom of the Ill, Reader, Hatje Cantz 
Welt Kunst
Arts Of The Working Class, Kingdom of the Ill
​Publico, ípsilon, pdf scan in Portuguese
SDUK, Issue 13: Lingering, commission, University of Toronto, Missusuaga, Blackwood Gallery 
Ocula, Crip Time: Beyond Abled Perspectives
Art Agenda, “Crip Time” 
ArtForum “best of 2021”, Pareidolia (Vaccinate Now), listed #1 by Susanne Pfeffer
What Does a COVID-19 Doula Do? Zine, Pages 27-28
Eazel, “The Exquisite Elevation and Engagement of Routine Rituals”
The New York Times, New York Art Galleries: What To See Right Now, Talk Back
Lutte Collective, artist feature 

Select Panels and Interviews 
Flipboard: On Curation Podcast Series, 2022
Cuéntame, Virtual Gallery, artist feature, 2021
Abrons Art Center, Access Intimacy in the Arts: A Conversation with Ezra Benus, Taraneh Fazeli, and Owólabi Aboyade, 2021
York College Fine Art Gallery, organized by No Longer Empty Accessibility Workshop for Curators+ 2018 
Princeton University, Ezra Benus: Disabilities, Art, & Jewishness 2018    
CUE Art Foundation, Access/Points: Approaches to Disability Arts 2018    

Curatorial and Programmatic Projects
Baxter St. Camera Club of NY, 2024 Curatorial Open Call recipient A small patch of sand, yet it holds so much, 2024
CUE Art Foundation, Crip’d Art Ecologies: Fermenting Crip’d Desire, Grief, Celebration, and Rage 2021
Visual AIDS An Army of The Sick Can’t Be Defeated: Reflections on Care Work in Perpetual Sick Times, 2020
Gibney, My Body Is The House That We Live In 2019 
Flux Factory Crip Ecologies Of Emergent Pain, public program closing event for Talk Back, 2019
For Freedoms x Brooklyn Museum, Town Hall: Art, Disability, Labor 2018    
The 8th Floor (Rubin Foundation), Locus: Art as a Disabled Space 2018
​

Teaching Experience
School of Making Thinking, Summer School, course Pain as a Portal, Summer 2024
Print Center of New York, freelance educator, February 2024 - present
Jewish Museum, guest educator on accessibility, Virtual Summer Institute, Summers 2020-2024
Brooklyn Museum, September 2018-July 2019
Brandeis University, Community Arts Educator Summers 2016, 2017
Jewish Community Project, Teacher (2nd & 5th Grade), academic years 2013-2014, 2015-2016

2015-2017
Wright State University Breaking Silences, Demanding Crip Justice: Sex, Sexuality, and Disability, 2017.
Per Forma: Transition and Identity Performance of "לֹך לֹך/Go Forth/Go To Yourself"  Collaboration with Anna Korbasova at Fylkingen, Stockholm, Sweden. 2016
'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 Performance “Fourth Text” with Anna Korbasova. Fylkingen, Stockholm, Sweden. 2016
Cult. Magazine, Issue #5 pp. 23, Winter 2014/2015

Misc.
“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.

Strijd ∞ 
(Curatorial group)​
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.


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



Screenshot with text that reads: VISUAL AIDS LOGO IN BLUE ON TOP RIGHT CORNER. TEXT READS:
UPCOMING EVENT
April Web Gallery Curator Talk: Ezra and Noah Benus
INSTAGRAM LIVE
DATE:
Wednesday, April 15, 2020 from 5:00pm–6:00pm
SHARE
PRICE: FREE
Join artists Ezra and Noah Benus for an Instagram Live conversation about their web gallery "An Army of the Sick Can't Be Defeated: Reflections on Care Work in Perpetual Sick Times." The gallery features a selection of artwork by HIV+ artists from the Visual AIDS Artist+ Registry, curated through the lens of disability justice and caretaking. Their reflections remind us that as a society we need to center and learn from sick and disabled communities not only during times of widespread illness but as an unwavering constant. We invite audience members to submit questions throughout their live conversation. Follow Visual AIDS on Instagram at @visual_aids
Image description: flyer for exhibition opening reception in two photos, first one has image of a large red painting with colorful triangles all over, with text to the left reads: Rituals: Ezra Benus, Romily Alice Walden, Yo-Yo Lin
Opening Reception, 20s + 30s Art Talks. Below it the text continues:
Join us on February 27th for the opening of the Laurie M Tisch Gallery's newest exhibit, Rituals: Ezra Benus, Romily Alice Walden, Yo-Yo Lin.
Flyer invitation to the opening of Rituals at the JCC.
My Body Is The House That We Live In. screenshot of handout with an image of an artwork Image description: The whole image is in variants of grey scale, reminiscent of x-ray or other scans. bisecting the frame there are two images of the same back of the hand posed with most of the fingers curled inwards, with the pointer finger fully raised. Overlaid on the image is text that reads An Army Of The Sick Can’t Be Defeated. Four paragraphs of exhibition text on the left column" This exhibition offers ways of considering embodied experiences of disability and illness in artists’ terms beyond just accessibility. It recognizes the wholeness of disability in its intersections and complexities, and leans into the tenderness of interdependency that those in disability communities deeply understand as it relates to building, having, losing, and changing relationships.

The exhibition reconsiders ways that disabled bodies 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.

The title is a reference to work by artist Romily Alice Walden. She measures the monotony and vulnerability in experiences living with illness and disability by engaging with other disabled people’s experiences and builds collective discourse and care networks through art. That gestures to the ways artists here state that not only does their existence open up glorious space for themselves, but by doing so expands and nurtures space for others. Tapping into the visceral and bodily knowledge of disability, we can relate, create, support and be supported, be aroused, be angry and confused, long for, and love. To recognize each other’s wholeness is to recognize that our relationships are complex and deeply part of that whole."
My Body Is The House That We Live In. screenshot of handout
Screenshot of The New York Times, New York Art Galleries: What To See Right Now. Text says " In recent months, New York City has seen a welcome wave of exhibitions and events organized by and devoted to disabled artists. The latest is “Talk Back,” 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."
Screenshot of The New York Times, New York Art Galleries: What To See Right Now.
I am standing against the glass entrance showing Eastern Parkway, lined with trees, and I'm grabbing a podium that reads Brooklyn Museum, presenting for the For Freedoms Town Hall: Art, Disability, Labor.
Image description: I am standing against the glass entrance showing Eastern Parkway, lined with trees, and I'm grabbing a podium that reads Brooklyn Museum, presenting for the For Freedoms Town Hall: Art, Disability, Labor.
Seven  disabled artists in Art and Disability Residency standing in front of the intro text to Means of Egress exhibition at Dedalus Foundation. Standing and smiling from left to right are Jerron Herman, Jeff Kasper, Jordana Bernstein, Kevin Quiles Bonilla, Madison Zalopany, and crouching in front of them is Shannon Finnegan and myself.
Image description: Seven disabled artists in Art and Disability Residency standing in front of the intro text to Means of Egress exhibition at Dedalus Foundation. Standing and smiling from left to right are Jerron Herman, Jeff Kasper, Jordana Bernstein, Kevin Quiles Bonilla, Madison Zalopany, and crouching in front of them is Shannon Finnegan and myself.
white text centered on a black background says Access / Points Approaches to Disability Arts
white text centered on a black background says Access / Points Approaches to Disability Arts
Breaking Silences, Demanding Crip Justice: Sex, Sexuality, and Disability.
Per Forma: Transition and Identity.
Hej Hej PALS Festival 2016.
Strijd ∞ exhibition.
Cult. Magazine Issue #5.
The Doping Agency
Muse Scholars Showcase. Ezra showing his artwork to Jennifer Raab, President of Hunter College.
Switch exhibition, Bezalel.
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  • Brothers Sick
  • CV
  • About/Contact