Benjamin Heller is a cross disciplinary artist, blurring the traditional boundaries of medium in order to uncover newfound vitality in their intersections. Drawing from a diverse background and training in visual arts, photography, dance, and physical improvisation, his works are rooted in the movement of the body and the creation of intimate environments that can be entered, opening a space for discovery via the body, senses, and the imagination.
His projects focus on the conflict and unity that can be found in the space between the hold of opposing forces, such as inside and outside, emergence and disappearance, rest and awakening. By engaging his body directly with materials that are often organic, such as wood, stone, reed or found within his local environment. He creates sensitizing structures that afford physical conversations between the natural dynamics of the material and a new experience for the body. These sculptures and environments can then be expanded by performance or met by others.
His photography, video and sculptural performance works have been shown at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Brooklyn Museum, Wave Hill, New York Live Arts, ICP International Center of Photography, Robin Rice Gallery, IDIO Gallery, Fresh Window Gallery, Eyebeam, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Honey Space Gallery in New York. He has been awarded many artist residencies and fellowships, including the 2020 NYFA/NYSCA Fellowship in Sculpture.
He has created immersive site-specific Installations Balance | The Weight of Light for the I-Park Environmental Art Biennial and Terrapin Basin a public sculpture of inter-cut quartzite sandstone at the Pleasure Point House Natural Area in Virginia Beach, VA and Spines Alluvial carved into quarry blocks at the Marble House Project in Dorset VT. Collaborative dance and sculpture projects include Welcome/Bienvenue and A Place of Sun with Company Stefanie Batten Bland performed in New York and Europe.
TEL: 646.221.6059
STUDIO:
1013/1027 GRAND STREET, 5TH FLOOR
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 11211
EMAIL: BENJAMINHELLERART@GMAIL.COM
