EZRA BENUS
  • Sculpture/Installation
    • Bottles/Always
    • Shortness of Breath
  • Painting/Drawing/Collage
    • select works 2014-2020
    • select works 2011-2013
  • Brothers Sick
  • CV
  • About/Contact
Note: I am working on completing Image Descriptions for every photograph on the site and appreciate your patience in this process.
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.
2023
  • SDUK, Issue 13: Lingering, upcoming 2023
    Brothers Sick poster print commision
    University of Toronto, Missusuaga, Blackwood Gallery
2022
  • ArtMatters Foundation, 2022 Artist2Artist Fellow recipient 
  • Galerie Analix Forever, Geneva, Switzerland, Rainbow , December 3, 2022-February 2, 2023
  • Museion, Bolzano, Italy, Kingdom Of The Ill ,October 2022 -March 2023
    Exhibition Guide here.
    • Press:
      Welt Kunst, by Philipp Hindahl, interview with curators Sara Cluggish and Pavel Pys
      Arts Of The Working Class
      Publico, ípsilon, October 22, 2022, by Ana Marques Maia pdf scan in Portuguese here
      Hatje Cantz published Kingdom Of The Ill reader
  • Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) Frankfurt, Germany 
    Crip Time, September 18 2021- January 30, 2022
    • Reviews: 
      Crip Time: Beyond Abled Persepectives by Jareh Das in Ocula
       “Crip Time”  by Kenny Fries in Art Agenda 
      Pareidolia (Vaccinate Now) in ArtForum “best of 2021” list by Susanne Pfeffer
  • Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto, Canada, #CripRitual, February 8-April 1, 2022
  • Art Windsor Essex, (formerly Art Gallery of Windsor), Canada, Crip Ecologies: Vulnerable Bodies in a Toxic Landscape, February 19-May 22, 2022
2021
  • Pratt Institute, Manhattan Gallery, Political Intimacy, April 29-June 22, 2021
  • The Shed, Up Close: Phases and the In-Betweens
  • EFA Project Space SHIFT: A Residency For Arts Workers, Artist in Residence 2020/21
  • Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) Frankfurt, Crip Time, September 18 2021- January 30, 2022
2020
  • Protocols Issue #8: Contracting At The Seams: Bodiless at the Bimah
  • Shape Arts, UK The Future Is Loading..., essay and visual works
  • What Does a COVID-19 Doula Do? Zine,
  • Visual AIDS , AN ARMY OF THE SICK CAN’T BE DEFEATED: REFLECTIONS ON CARE WORK IN PERPETUAL SICK TIMES April 2020 Web Gallery.
  • Lutte Collective April 2020 Featured Artist
  • Laurie M. Tisch Gallery, JCC Manhattan, Rituals: Ezra Benus, Romily Alice Walden, Yo-Yo Lin
    • Video recording of panel discussion for ReelAbilities 
    • interview by Alexandria Deters for Eazel, May 2nd 2020
  • Wave Hill, Artists in Residence, Wave Hill Winter Workspace 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.”
2019
  • Gibney My Body Is The House That We Live In
  • Flux Factory, TALK BACK,. co-curated by Lexy Ho-Tai and moira williams
    • 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
  • NYU Gallatin Galleries Crip Impoderabilia, . curated by Bojana Coklyat 
2018
  • For Freedoms x Brooklyn Museum, Town Hall: Art, Disability, Labor
  • Dedalus Foundation, Means of Egress, curated by Lisa Dent.
  • The 8th Floor , Locus: Art as a Disabled Space 
  • York College Fine Art Gallery Accessibility Workshop for Curators+
  • Princeton University Ezra Benus: Disabilities, Art, & Jewishness, artist talk
    • 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 CUE Art Foundation. NYC.
  • SPARK Disability Arts Festival,. Studio C Gallery ​​Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
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 ∞ 
(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.


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.



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  • Sculpture/Installation
    • Bottles/Always
    • Shortness of Breath
  • Painting/Drawing/Collage
    • select works 2014-2020
    • select works 2011-2013
  • Brothers Sick
  • CV
  • About/Contact