BIO

Culture according to Brian Eno is “everything we don’t have to do.” For the past several years Ben Kinsley has been focused on doing exactly those things. Drawing inspiration from folk music, football games, and 4th of July parades, he has been known to play himself, and others, like musical instruments and organize large-scale theatrical productions in unusual places.

His work includes conducting an orchestra of screaming humans, directing a maritime-themed play for boaters on a lake in Maine, organizing a shadow play in the middle of the California High Desert, and choreographing a neighborhood intervention into Google Street View.

Ben’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in museums, galleries, and film festivals and is included in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. He is a 2005 graduate from the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he received the First Agnes Gund Traveling Award (Best In Show) for his BFA thesis exhibition work. He is a 2006 alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and received his MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in May of 2008.

Ben is currently in Iceland participating in several artist residencies around the country.


EDUCATION

2008 MFA / Carnegie Mellon University
2006 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
2005 BFA / The Cleveland Institute of Art
2004 Fachhochschule Schwäbisch Hall - University of Applied Sciences, Germany


SELECTED EXHIBITIONS / SCREENINGS / PERFORMANCES

2008
Sonic Youth, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
A Moratorium on Make-Believe, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Pittsburgh
Gestures: Illustrations of Catastrophe and Remote Times, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh
For You, For Me, From Me, Flux Space, Philadelphia

2007
9th Annual Black Sheep Puppet Festival, Brewhouse, Pittsburgh
TRANSIT, Nagoya Zokei University of Art and Design, Japan
Media Flow Part 5, Fluctuating Images Contemporary Media Art, Stuttgart
The Singer Sucks, But The Band... (curated by Erick Michaud), Sunday L.E.S. New York, NY
trooz (curated by Art Office), Show Cave, Los Angeles, CA
Vision Request, A-Z West, Joshua Tree, CA
Everything Must Go!, Future Tenant Gallery, Pittsburgh
Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

2006
In_Tension, Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park, PA
Radio SKC, Studentski Kulturni Centar, Belgrade, Serbia
BRING IT! Future Tenant Gallery, Pittsburgh
HOMO LUDENS: Yip Yap Yelp & Holler, Brewhouse Theater, Pittsburgh
NEMO Film Festival, Paris, France
Don't Tell Your Head: Ben Kinsley / Steve Probert, Hyacinth Gallery, Cleveland

2005
NEO Show, Cleveland Museum of Art
Ingenuity: A Festival of Art & Technology, Cleveland
BFA Thesis Exhibition, Cleveland Institute of Art
43rd Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan
SIE59: Student Independent Exhibition, Cleveland Institute of Art


GRANTS / AWARDS

2008
Sprout Fund Seed Award, Pittsburgh, PA
CMU Graduate Student Association GuSH Grant

2006
Skowhegan Brown Foundation Fellowship
Skowhegan Matching Scholarship, Carnegie Mellon University

2005
Dominion Prize: Best of Show, NEO Show, Cleveland Museum of Art
First Agnes Gund Traveling Award, BFA Thesis Exhibition, Cleveland Institute of Art

RESIDENCIES

2008
NES Artist Residency, Skagaströnd, Iceland
SIM Artist Residency (Korpulfsstadir) Reykjavík, Iceland
SIM Artist Residency (Seljavegur) Reykjavík, Iceland

2006
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME


COLLECTIONS

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Robert M. Kaye
Leonard Steinbach


SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Sonic Youth” by Karlijn De Jongh
CIRCA Issue 125, Autumn 2008

“Reel Good Show” by Therese McKenna
The Metro (Dublin), July 14, 2008

“The Pretenders” by Savannah Guz,
Pittsburgh City Paper, April 16-23, 2008

“Come Play With Me" by Roberta Fallon
Philadelphia Weekly, Jan 23-29, 2008

“Mattress Factory’s Gestures Gain Energy With A Few Firsts” by Mary Thomas
Pittsburgh Post-Gaze, January 20, 2008

“Vision Request” by Colleen Asper
Beautiful/Decay, August 2007