Leonardo Benzant CV
b. 1972 Brooklyn, NY, USA
Lives and works in Queens, NY and Saint Croix, Virgin Islands, USA
Solo Exhibitions
2026 Between The Mist And Shadow, Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts (Upcoming)
2025 A Cosmology Of Ancient Futures, Gantt Center, Charlotte, NC (Upcoming)
2021 Across Seven Ruins & Redemptions_Somo Kamarioka, Claire Oliver Gallery, NY
2017 Homeostasis, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, NY, curated by Dexter Wimberly
2016 Afrosupernatural, Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ curated by Dexter Wimberly
Group Exhibitions
2024 Summer, Summer, Tern Gallery, Bahamas
2020 A Very Anxious Feeling: Voices of Unrest in the American Experience; 20 Years of the Beth Rudin Dewoody Collection, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA, curated by Amethyst Rey Beaver
2020 Four Now, Claire Oliver Gallery, Harlem NY
2019 The Enduring Soul, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
2019 From The Limitations of Now, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, curated by Sara O’Keeffe
2019 Coffee, Rhum, Sugar, and Gold: A Postcolonial Paradox, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA, curated by Dexter Wimberly (catalog)
2019 Expo Chicago Art Fair, Claire Oliver Gallery, Chicago, IL
2019 Untitled Art Fair, Claire Oliver Gallery, Miami Beach, FL
2018 Revival: Contemporary Pattern and Decoration, Museo del Barrio, New York, NY, Curated by Rocio Aranda_Alvarado
2018 The Future of Craft Part 2: The Burke Prize Exhibition, Museum of Arts and Design, NY, Curated Samantha De Tillio, Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy and Alida Jekabson
2018 PULSE Contemporary Art Fair, Claire Oliver Gallery, Miami Beach, FL
2017 Visionary Aponte: Arts & Freedom, 9th Edition of Global/Borderless Caribbean (during Miami Basel), Little Haiti Cultural Center, Miami, FL and King Juan Carlos, of Spain Center, NYU (catalog)
2017 A Fast, Moving Sky, The Third Line, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2017 High John the Conqueror Ain't Got Nothing On Me: American Hoodoo and Southern Black American-centric Spiritual Ways, Rush Art Gallery, NY, curated by Danny Simmons and Shantrelle P. Lewis
2016 Something I Can Feel, VOLTA, Curated by Derrick Adams
2016 Resident's Exhibition, Galveston Artist Residency, Galveston, TX
2016 Koi No Yokan III, 101 Exhibit Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Cosmology of Resistance and Transformation, G.R. N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI
2015 Power, Protest, and Resistance: The Art of Revolution, Skylight Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, curated by Oshun Layne and Daniel Simmons
2015 Badass Art Man: Original Artwork of Danny Simmons (coupled with items from his eclectic collection), African American Museum in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2015 New American Sculpture, FiveMyles Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, curated by Dexter Wimberly
2015 Venturing Out of the Heart of Darkness, Harvey B. Gantt Center, Charlotte, NC, curated by Rehema Barber
2015 Textual, Odetta Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Curated by Ellen Hackl Fagan
2014 Edge Art: Black Latino (a) Artists, An Inter-Caribbean Dialogue, 3rd. Annual Black Studies Fine Art Exhibition of Contemporary Black/Afro-Latino (a) Artists from Around the Western Atlantic World, Cohen Library Archives Gallery, New York, NY
2014 In Between Days, Driscoll Babcock Galleries, New York, NY, curated by Tess Schwab 2014
2014 I Kan Do Dat, Contemporary Abstract Art, Rush Arts Gallery, New York, NY, curated by Danny Simmons and Oshun Layne
2014 Bridging Boundaries: Redefining Diaspora Part I, Postscrypt Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY
2014 Bridging Boundaries Redefining Diaspora Part II, Aloft Hotel Gallery, New York, NY curated by Leanne Stella
2014 Curatorial Salon, Leonardo Benzant, Derek Fordjour, Duhirwe Rushemeza, Tikhonova & Wintner Fine Art, New York, NY
2014 Performance Collaboration with Lisa Shears, Maia Estelle Benzant-Perez and Aixa Kendrick: The Trinity, Tikhonova & Wintner Fine Art, New York, NY
Education
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY (2007 - 2010)
Awards| Residencies
2024 Black Mountain International Art Prize–Finalist
2017 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant
2016 Galveston Artist Residency, Galveston Texas
Collections
Weisman Museum
Minneapolis Institute of Art
The Bunker Artspace
Studio Museum, Harlem NY
The Harvey B. Gantt Center, Charlotte, NC, USA
Art in Embassies, US Department of State, Washington, DC, USA
The Wedge Collection
Peggy Cooper Cafritz, Washington DC
Lazane Jobe, Los Angeles, CA
Vivian Hewitt, New York, NY
Stanley Gleaton, New York, NY
Artist Talks | Lectures | Panel Discussions
2020 In The Artist Studio: Leonardo Benzant, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
2020 Virtual Conversation with Leonardo Benzant, Taubman Museum, 12.17.2020
2020 Conversations on Content, Claire Oliver Gallery
2019 Lecture: Leonardo Benzant, University of Delaware, 10.17.2019
2017 Visionary Aponte: Art and Black Freedom - A Symposium, NYU, 2.23.2017
2014 Artist Lecture Series, MICA, Maryland Institute College of Art
2014 Across Generations: African-Americanisms in Contemporary Art. Moderated by Dexter Wimberly, Tikhonova & Wintner Fine Art, New York, NY
2014 The Sacred and the Surreal: The Role of Spirituality in Abstract Art, Skylight Gallery, Danny Simmons Jr. Panel Discussion, moderator: Sherman Fleming,
Bibliography | Text
Barnett, Malene, Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practices of Contemporary Black Caribbean Maker, 2024
Todd, Jessica, “Restrung: Contemporary North American Beadsmiths” ,Metalsmith magazine Vol 41 No 1, 2021
Garden Castro, Jan, “In The Studio With Leonardo Benzant”, Sculpture.org, 5.27.2020
Samudzi, Zoe, “A Caribbean Present Steeped in a Colonial Past”, Hyperallergic, 7.29.2019
Sargeant, Antwaun, “How Black Artists, Dealers, and Collectors Are Boosting the Careers of Their Younger Peers”, Artsy, 12.14.2017
Klein, Alyssa, “Leonardo Benzant Afrosupernatural Art”, OkayAfrica, 2016
Dees, Sasha, “Leonardo Benzant”, Africanah.Org: Arena For Contemporary African, African-American And Caribbean Art, 6.2.2014
Roulette, Tod, “Black Latino(a) Artists, An InterCaribbean Dialogue, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015
Green, Penelope, “Peggy Cooper Cafritz: Everything in a Big Way”, New York Times, 1.14.2015
Pendana, Sharon, “Leonardo Benzant”, In The Trove, 2016
Sutton, Benjamin, "Surveying Surveys of New American Sculpture", Hyperallergic, 2015 Wong, Ryan "Younger Americans At Driscoll Babcock", ARTSlant New York, 2015
Cooper Cafriz, Peggy, “Fired Up! Ready to Go!: Finding Beauty, Demanding Equity: An African American Life in Art. The Collections of Peggy Cooper Cafritz”, Rizzoli USA, 2018
Perree, Rob, “The Quirky Work of Leonardo Benzant”, 11.2012
Bibliography | Radio | Film | TV | Podcasts
Hollis, Phyllis, Cerebral Women Podcast, Episode 84, 2021
Ward, Kelvin, “Afrosupernatural”, The Bholdr, 2016
Hinojosa, Maria, “Nontraditional Traditions With Leonardo Benzant”, Latino USA, NPR, August 26, 2016
Davis, Kathy. “Interview with Leonardo Benzant.” WBAI. November 26,2012