Photo by Joe Schmelzer
About the Artist
Cliff Benjamin was born in Berkeley, California, in 1955. He has lived in San Francisco, Rome, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and now resides in Makawao, Maui.
His conceptually based work examines the interface of nature and culture. It explores the paradox of science and the unknown, reproduction, the simultaneity of order and chaos, fear, and the transient nature of the body. His use of text, images, and light point to the breadth of unease and/or ecstatic states inherent to the physical plane.
“He intends that the work evidence the burning force inherent in growth and extension, even that of disease and decay, as though it were possible to simply look in some unfocused way at another and see the bright molecules of which we are constituted flashing and dancing before us. He sees a nature that regenerates by exploding, over and over, and a desire that makes reproduction of any kind possible…..These are celebrations of need, replication and inevitable loss.”
From the exhibition catalogue, Coincidence by Edward Leffingwell, 1996
EDUCATION
1980 Tyler School Abroad Rome, Italy (MFA)
1979 Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1978 Pitzer College, Claremont College, Claremont, California (BFA)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California
California State University, Los Angeles, California
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California
LECTURER
Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California
California State University, Los Angeles, California
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California
Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California
University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
Cranbrook Academy of Art, Detroit, Michigan
Phoenix College, North Hollywood, California
California State University Northridge, Northridge, California
California State University Monterey Bay, Seaside, California
WORK EXPERIENCE
1986 – 1994
Assistant Director, James Corcoran Gallery, Santa Monica, California
1996 – 2003
Director (1998 – 2003) Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, California
2003 – 2018
Co-Owner/Director, Western Project, Los Angeles, California
2016 – 2019
Manager of Exhibition Archives and Sales, Steven Arnold Museum and Archive, Haiku, Hawaii
2022 - present
Manager/Owner of the Carole Caroompas Estate
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California
Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana, California
Fowler Museum, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
Phyllis & Ross Escalette Permanent Collection of Art, Chapman University, Orange, California
University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona
Cedars Sinai Art Collection, Los Angeles, California
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan, Utah
Dr. Robert Sommer Queer Art Collection, Cerritos College, Cerritos, California
The Bunker Artspace, West Palm Beach, Florida
Jack Shear, Chatham, New York
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Alto Beta, Alta Dena, California
2024 Wailuku Art Space, Wailuku, Hawaii
2019 Jason Vass Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2016 Radix Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
1997 University of Arizona Art Museum, Tucson, Arizona
1996 ACME ART, Santa Monica California
1994
Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, California
Radix Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
1992
Burnett Miller Gallery Los Angeles, California
Wilkey Gallery, Seattle, Washington
1991 Trans Avant Garde/Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, California
1990 Pence Gallery, Santa Monica, California
1989 Pence Gallery, Santa Monica, California
1988 Pence Gallery, Santa Monica, California
1987 Gallerie Evan, Toronto, Canada
1986 Davies/Long Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1985 Attack Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1982 Galleria By the Water, Los Angeles, California
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Dr. Robert Sommer Queer Art Collection, Cerritos College, Cerritos, California “Recent Acquisitions”
2020 Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art,”The Day After Tomorrow: Art In Response To Turmoil and Hope”, Utah State University, Logan, Utah
2018 Art Box, Kahuki, HI, “1ST Surf & Ocean International Art Show”
2004 Grand Central Art Center, "100 Artists See Satan”, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, California
1998 Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, California “Hollywood Satan”
1996
Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, University of Alabama,
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, “Under Glass”
Weatherspoon Art Gallery, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro,”Art on Paper”
Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California “Drawn From LA”
Arts Manhattan, Manhattan Beach, California, “Coincidence” (June 7-30: Curated by
Ed Leffingwell)
Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, New York “New Talent, New Ides” (September 3-28)
1995
Radix Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona, “Come and Get It”
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio. “It’s Only Rock N Roll”, traveling to: Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences, Peoria; Virginia Beach Center
for the Arts, Virginia; Tacoma Art Museum, Washington; Jacksonville Museum of
Contemporary Art, Florida; Dean Lesher
Regional Center for the Arts, Bedford Gallery,
Walnut Creek, California; Phoenix Art Museum,
Arizona; Lowe Art Center, Coral Gables, Florida;
Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin; Arkansas Art
Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, “Under Glass”
1994
TZ’ART & CO. New York, New York. “Sanctuary (Moth to
Flame)”
James Corcoran Gallery, Santa Monica, California,
“Animal Farm”
1993
Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, New York “Essentials”
Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, California, “Kink”
Radix Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona, “WAKE UP”
Drawing Center, New York, New York, “The Return of the Cadavre Equis”
California State University Fullerton, California,
“The Elegant, Irreverant and Obsessive Drawing
In Southern California”
Radix Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona. “Genetic Inevitability”
1992
Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park,
Los Angeles, California “LAX: The Los Angeles
Exhibition”
Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, California, “Numbers”
Newspace Gallery, Los Angeles, California, “Instincts
of Intuition”
1991
Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman College, Orange,
California, “Death As Creative Force”
Burnett Miller Gallery, Los Angeles, California,
“Sculpture”
Mincher/Wilcox Gallery, San Francisco, California,
“Telekinesis”
Tom Solomon’s Garage, Los Angeles, California, “Five Days”
1990 Burnett Miller Gallery, Los Angeles, California, “Drawings”
1989 Pence Gallery, Santa Monica, California, “Victoria”
1988 Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art, Monterey, California, “Tropical Topics”
1987
Galerie Am Moritzplatz, Berlin, Germany,
“10 Jahre Kunst”
Pence Gallery, Santa Monica, California, “Works On
Paper”
Galerie Evan, Toronto, Canada, “Contemporary Vibrations”
1984 Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, California “Seventh Annual Downtown Artist’s Show” (Curated by Howard Fox)
FILM
“Steven Arnold: Heavenly Bodies”, directed by Vishnu Dass, 2018
“Jim French”, produced and directed by Sean Boyle, 2016
“Beauty Is Embarrassing: The Wayne White Story”, directed by Neil Berkeley, 2012
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anderson, Michael. “Cliff Benjamin at Davies/Long Gallery”, L.A. WEEKLY, October 17-23, 1986 (Volume 8 #47, page 52).
_____. “Cliff Benjamin/Pick of the Week”, L.A. WEEKLY, March 4 - 10, 1988 (Volume 10 #15 page 113).
Curtis, Cathy. “Victoria, at Pence Gallery”, LOS ANGELES TIMES August 18, 1989 (Part VI, page 16).
Curtis, Cathy. “On Drawing: Get the Point?”, LOS ANGELES TIMES, April, 4 1993.
Condon, Catt Fields. “Wake Up”, PHX DOWNTOWN, January 1993
Eilers, Michael. “ ‘Eclipse’ Casts a Shadow Over Museum of Art”, ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT, January 30, 1997.
Flam, Frank. “LA’s Growing Art Scene”, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, MARCH 9, 1988.
Gardner, Colin. “Cliff Benjamin at Davies/Long Gallery”. LOS ANGELES TIMES, October 24, 1986.
Hollingsworth, Gaines. “Avant-Guardians: Cliff Benjamin”, THE ADVOCATE, September 25, 1990 (Issue #560, page 66).
Humphrey, Jacqueline. “32nd Art on Paper”, NEWS & RECORD Greensboro, North Carolina, November 21,1996.
Junker, Howard. ZYZZYVA, (Vol. 5 No. 1, page 125) Spring 1989.
Junker, Howard. ZYZZYVA, (Vol. 6 NO 1, page 81), Spring 1990.
Korten, Noel. “LAX: The Los Angeles Exhibition 92”, Exhibition Catalogue (pages 55 & 60), Barnsdall Art Park, Los Angeles, California, 1992
Laurence, Michael. “Cliff Benjamin at Attack Gallery”, FLASH ART, February/March 1986.
Lawrence, Debra. “The Art Bloom: LA Gets Smart”, DESIGNERS WEST, September 1986.
Leffingwell, Ed. “Coincidence”, Exhibition Catalogue, Arts Manhattan, Manhattan Beach, California, 1996.
Love, Kenna. “Visions of LA Artists”, VISIONS, November 1986 (Volume 1, #11 page 14). Marks, Ben. “Cliff Benjamin at Pence Gallery”, VISIONS, Fall 1990.
McGee, Mike, “100 Artists See Satan, Exhibition Catalogue, Grandd Central Arts Center, Fullerton, California, September 2004
McGee, Mike. ”Elegant, Irreverant & Obsessive: Drawings in Southern California”, Exhibition Catalogue, Cal State University Fullerton, Fullerton, California, 1993
McKenna, Kristine. “Cliff Benjamin /David Leventhal at Pence Gallery”, LOS ANGELES TIMES, April 14 1989 (Part VI, page 18).
_____. “Art Reviews: The Paranoia of the 90’S - Cliff Benjamin and Tom Knechtel at Pence Gallery”, LOS ANGELES TIMES, September 18, 1990 (Section F, page 5).
Muchnic, Suzanne. “LACE’S Downtown Show”, LOS ANGELES TIMES, May 26, 1984.
_____. “Cliff Benjamin at Pence Gallery”. LOS ANGELES TIMES, March 4, 1988 (Section VI, page 26).
Neel, Tucker. “Power to the Artists: Cliff Benjamin on Cool, As a Ticking Time Bomb”, ARTILLERY, May - June 2015
Norklun, Kathi. “Seventh Downtown Artists’ Show at LACE” L.A. WEEKLY, May 18-24, 1984.
_____. “Downtown Eclectics and Traditionalists”, ARTWEEK, May 1984.
Pagel, David. “THe Message Is the Meaning” LOS ANGELES TIMES, July 2, 1992.
_____. “Satellite: Los Angeles”, ARTSCRIBE, November/December 1990 (No. 8).
Pela, Robert A. “Cat Spencer Recalls th History of Downtown Art Space Radix Gallery”, Phoenix New Times, January 27, 2021.
Picot, Pierre. “Explorations of the Unknown”, ARTWEEK, April 29, 1989 (Volume 20 #17, page 5).
Portwood, Pamela. “Fading Away”, THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR, January 31, 1997.
Rubin, David. “It’s Only Rock and Roll: Rock and Roll Currents In Contemporary Art”, Exhibition Catalogue, Phoenix Art Museum, 1995 (Published by Prestel-Verlag).
Scaroborogh, James. “The Prospects For Redemption: Cliff Benjamin at Pence Gallery”, ARTWEEK, October 11, 1990 (Volume #33, pages 11-12).
Smallwood, Lyn. “Visual Arts: Spotlight”, SEATTLE WEEKLY, April 15, 1992.
Urban, Hope. "Deviant Conspiracy", L.A.WEEKLY, October 15, 1993. Weatherspoon Art Gallery, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, “Art on Paper”, Exhibition Catalogue, 1996.
Whitington, Luther. “Talk of the Trade”, ART & AUCTION, October 1987 (Page 68).