Artist Statement/ Biography

Jesus Benavente's artwork is founded in performance. The work expands into other mediums including sculpture, painting, video, and photography. As a Mexican-American from an impoverished community, he uses humor/comedy at his own expense to define and pressure the constraints of culture and convention. He works with his persona, BENAVENTE, to test and explore identity in a world pretending to be post-identity. Formal elements and an informal attitude shift throughout the work. Cars are bisected, working-class materials become artist materials, social interactions transform from mundane to aggressive. These divergent practices/mediums coalesce to create his worldview as a Latino living in Trump’s America.

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Jesus Benavente earned an MFA from the Mason Gross School of Art at Rutgers University and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Recent exhibitions and performances include, Queens Museum, Queens, NY; LTD Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA; Performa 13, NY; Find & Form Space, Boston, MA; Chashama, NY; Shin Museum of Art, South Korea; ICEBOX Project Space, Philadelphia, PA; Kingston Sculpture Biennial, Kingston, NY; Socrates Sculpture Park, NY and Austin Museum of Art, TX, among others. Born in San Antonio, TX, Jesus Benavente lives and works in Long Island City, NY.