Gavin Benjamin was born in Guyana, South America and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Benjamin received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. During this time, he interned with legendary portrait photographer Arnold Newman, worked as black and white and color printer at LTI and Baboo color labs, and worked at Edge Reps and Exposure NY, agencies representing commercial and advertising photographers, prop stylists, and hair and makeup artists. After Exposure NY, Benjamin went to work as a freelance production coordinator/photo editor with stints at Kenneth Cole productions, Esquire Magazine, Hachette Filipacchi Media, and Good Housekeeping magazine.

His work has appeared at the Slick Paris, Sotheby’s NY, Architectural Digest Home Design Show, Art Hampton, Affordable Art Fair, Scope Miami, Palm Beach Modern, Context Miami, Context NY, Art Silicon Valley, and the LA Art Fair. Most recently Benjamin was the Artist in Residence at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the recipient of the 2021 Eben Demarest Award, and was included in two group exhibitions: “Making Home Here” at the Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art, and "Food For Thought" at Contemporary Craft.

My practice combines original analog photography and appropriated images with collage, paint, and varnish to create rich and luxurious works that call back to baroque traditions while incorporating elements of current culture to provoke, critique, and explore. I seek to investigate the intersection of culture, media, politics, fashion, and design, addressing questions that (continue to) confront men of color in America today. I use the following descriptors to guide the main pillars of my practice: Neo-baroque, bespoke, cinematic, identity politics, beautiful, engaging, contemporary. With these as my guide I use various subject matter to create a rich and luxurious world.

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Upcoming Projects:
October 2022- Break Down and Let It All Out, The Westmoreland Museum of American Art
Nemacolin Gallery, Farmington, PA, May 26th - July 31st
ZYNKA Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA, July 7th (opening reception on the 9th) - August 28th (with Hans Neleman)
McDonough Museum, Youngstown, OH, September 6th (opening reception on the 9th) - October 29th

Hyperallergic: Artists Find Creative Ways to Raise Food Insecurity Awareness