Erik Benjamins
is an artist in Los Angeles that adopts textures and languages from visual art, performance, design and writing. His work savors the sensing body as an intimate perspective with which to flex our relationship to Place and its messy frictions. Other recent themes and explorations include reflexology walking paths as spaces for public health, the potential for text and writing as it exists on and off the page, the poetics of tiling, and valuing rest as a vital act.
Portrait by Kovi Konowiecki.
Erik acknowledges his presence on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Chumash, Kizh, and Tongva peoples.
Contact, Mailing List, CV, IG
Education
2012
MFA Studio Art, School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University, Boston, MA
2008
BA Comm. Studies & Studio Arts, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA
2006
Fall Semester, Florence, Italy, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Summer Semester, Florence, Italy, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA
Residencies
2022
EKWC (European Ceramic Work Center), Oisterwijk, NL
2018
Critical Art Writing Ensemble III, Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, Alberta, CAN
2017
Spring Workshop, Hong Kong
Institute for Art & Olfaction, Los Angeles
2016
The Drive of Walking Master Class, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL
2015
Food & Justice Residency, Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM
2010
Mildred’s Lane, Beach Lake, PA
Collections
Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain (FRAC) Poitou-Charentes Franklin Furnace Artists’ Books Collection Paul D. Fleck Library & Archives, Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity Private Collection of Ed Ruscha SFMOMA Special Collections Research Library
Recent Exhibitions
2024
For Dear Life, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA
Smoke & Mirrors, Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Rites of Spring, Marta, Los Angeles, CA
2023
100 Hooks, Blunk Space, Point Reyes Station, CA
Resistance & Respiration, Contemporary Calgary, CAN
2022
MICROLOGIES, Irenic Projects, Pasadena, CA
Schindler House: 100 Years in the Making, MAK Center Schindler House, Los Angeles, CA
2021
Built In, Neutra VDL Studio & Residences, Los Angeles, CA For Modern Resting, Marta, Los Angeles, CA
Talks
2023
·L·e·a·k·y··W·a·l·k·s· Book Launch, Maastricht, NL
2022
De Fabriek, Eindhoven, NL
2021
Multiple Formats Contemporary Art Book Symposium, Boston University, MA
Tour as Format, MAK Center for Arts & Architecture, Los Angeles, CA
2020
Professional Practices Course, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA
A man wearing clogs sits in his studio and holds a rectangular piece of cast plaster in front of his face.
© Erik Benjamins, 2025
Site by Patrick Mason