The Oakland-based artist Mark Benson (b. 1978, Denver) examines how people move through the fences of their lives. He is interested in weekends, security lines, high rent, horrible markets, libidos, sickness, and health as delineations in time, space, or self that define our actions and efforts. Most of his projects use everyday objects or materials to bring to life a variety of contemporary social issues and emotions, from anxiety around productivity, to the fear of failure, to the conflicted joy of being lazy.
Benson received his MFA from California College of the Arts in 2011, and his BFA in 2000 from Loyola University, Chicago. He has had solo exhibitions at Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco (2015 and 2012) and Eli Ridgway Gallery Hallway Project, San Francisco (2013), and has participated in group exhibitions at City Limits Gallery, Oakland (2014), the Fine Arts Gallery at San Francisco State University (2014), Royal NoneSuch Gallery, Oakland (2013), Unspeakable
Projects, San Francisco (2013 and 2011), Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City (2012), the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2011), Worth Ryder Art Gallery, Berkeley (2011), Southern Exposure, San Francisco (2010), Root Division, San Francisco (2010), and Sullivan Galleries, SAIC, Chicago (2009 and 2008), among others.
