Erik Benson

Benson’s paintings are pieced together fragments of urban landscape and culture that are found in the everyday. They sample elements and fragments of urban spaces in an attempt to express something new about the spaces that we inhabit. This layering of space is replicated in the technique: to create the paintings he pours acrylic paint onto sheets of glass, once these have solidified and acquired an elasticity they are peeled off and collaged into larger compositions.

Education:

2001 MFA Rhode Island School of Design Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
1996 BFA Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Awards:

2007: NYFA Painting Fellow, Marie Walsh Sharpe Studio Program
2007: NYFA Painting Fellow, Marie Walsh Sharpe Studio Program
2006: Visiting Artist, Mississippi State University
2005: Participating Artist in the Artist Pension Trust
2002: Artist in the Marketplace, Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx, NY
2000: Match Scholarship, Skowhegan School of Art, Skowhegan, ME
2000: Award of Excellence, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

Exhibitions:

2008: group exhibit, Lost Horizon, Herter Gallery, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, MA
2008: group exhibit, Future Tense, Reshaping the Landscape, Newberger Museum, Purchase, NY
2008: group exhibit, All Cut Up, Roebling Hall, New York, NY
2007: solo exhibit, Finesilver Gallery, Houston, TX
2007: group exhibit, Reality Show 2, Peninsula Arts Center, Newport News, VA
2006: solo exhibit, Elsewhere, Roebling Hall, New York, NY
2005: solo exhibit, Galerie Schuster-Schuerman, Berlin, Germany
2005: group exhibit, Built Against Site, Paragraph, Kansas City, MO
2005: group exhibit, Wasteland: 21st Century Landscape, Roebling Hall, Brooklyn, NY
2005: group exhibit, Everland, Annina Nosei Gallery, New York, NY
2004: solo exhibit, Dwell, RARE, New York, NY
2004: solo exhibit, Galerie Schuster, Frankfurt, Germany
2004: group exhibit, Suburbicarian, Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2004: group exhibit, Void, curated by David Gibson
2004: group exhibit, City Maps, Curated by Kate Green, Art Pace, San Antonio, TX
2004: group exhibit, Symbolic Space, HVCCA, Peekskill, NY
2004: group exhibit, Works on Paper, RARE, New York, NY
2003: solo exhibit, Perfect Memory, Finesilver Gallery, San Antonio, Texas
2003: solo exhibit, New Paintings, RARE, New York, NY
2003: group exhibit, Street Level, CCS Gallery at Bard College, Annendale, NY
2002: group exhibit, AIM Annual Exhibition, Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY
2001: group exhibit, Thesis Exhibition, RISD Museum, Providence, RI