Wednesday, April 27 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 pm
State of the Art: Record artist Paul Stephen Benjamin at LSU MOA, live stream in LSU Library lobby on tv screens
Visit the museum or the LSU Library to watch a live stream performance by artist Paul Stephen Benjamin at his typewriter creating his piece Daily Meditations and respond to this work during this event. Benjamin currently has two works on view in State of the Art: Record at the LSU Museum of Art, Daily Meditations and Summer Breeze, now on view until June 19, 2022.
In a wide range of works, including paintings, video installations, assemblage works, sculptures and performances, Paul Stephen Benjamin explores the depth of meaning and breadth of possibilities contained in the color black. He asks questions like, “What is the color black?” and “If the color black had a sound, what would it sound like?” In Daily Meditations, Benjamin draws from his daily ritual of manually typing out his thoughts about black. In his installation at LSU Museum of Art, he reproduced several of these phrases here, printed in black vinyl and placed on a black-painted wall.
Artist Bio: Paul Stephen Benjamin received his BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his MFA from Georgia State University. Benjamin is a recent recipient of The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia Working Artist Project. Benjamin will exhibit new works in 2017 at the MOCA GA as a part of the award. Benjamin was also recipient of the 2014 Artadia Award. In 2016 Benjamin exhibited Black is the Color at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. His work has been on exhibit at the Mayor Office of Cultural Affairs in Atlanta, Georgia. Among his awards to date are the MOCA GA WAP, Artadia Award 2014, Winnie B. Chandler Fellowship, Diasporal Rhythms Artists Recognition Award, Hambidge Fellowship, The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center Studio Program and the Forward Arts Emerging Artists Award.
State of the Art: Record is organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. The national tour of State of the Art 2020 is sponsored by Bank of America with additional support from Art Bridges. This exhibition and its programming are sponsored locally by a generous grant from Art Bridges.