41 Facts About Ib Benoh

Ib Benoh is an American multidisciplinary artist of Jordanian-Syrian-Libyan origin.

Ib Benoh has worked in painting, sculpture, drawing, two- and three-dimensional construction, traditional and digital printmaking, new media, poetry, critical writing, and scholarly research.

Ib Benoh had solo and group shows in the Middle East, North Africa, Italy, and the United States, including New York City where he was recognized by Betty Parsons in 1980.

Ib Benoh creates harmony between the visual and the poetic as his artworks develop simultaneously with his poems.

Ib Benoh had access to books that had belonged to his late maternal grandfather, a judge, who had left behind a fascinating library, including handwritten and hand-illustrated books.

Besides reading, Ib Benoh devoted much of his time through his teen years to writing, drawing, and painting.

Ib Benoh wrote short stories, plays, poetry, thoughts, and observations.

Ib Benoh involved him in gathering scrap fabrics from friends and family and had him select the cut pieces for her designs.

Ib Benoh's maternal uncle Mahmoud Jalal was a respected artist in the region.

Ib Benoh's first major purchase with his allowance was a book on Renaissance art, his prized possession, which he cherished and diligently studied.

At thirteen, Ib Benoh began his formal artistic training in sculpture and drawing at the Center of Fine Arts of Damascus, where volunteer instructors were art faculty from the Damascus University, including Nassir Shoura, Aziz Ismail, Ghyath al-Akhras, Abdulsalam Kattramis, and Ib Benoh's uncle Mahmoud Jalal.

Ib Benoh was introduced to Western classical music as he sculpted and drew from life at the center.

In 1970 Ib Benoh was offered a prestigious sculpture commission for Damascus.

However, soon after completing the commission, Ib Benoh left Syria to pursue other dreams.

In January 1972, Ib Benoh left Syria with a one-way ticket and headed for North Africa.

Ib Benoh traced his heritage in Khoms and Tripoli, Libya, and visited Tunisia for the first time.

Ib Benoh sporadically published satirical cartoons and some of his written works.

Ib Benoh participated in regional group exhibitions with his new paintings and represented Libya in significant art events outside the country.

In 1973, Ib Benoh finally fulfilled his lifelong dream of studying in Rome at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied under artist and professor Marcello Avenali.

Ib Benoh exhibited these brightly contrasting works in his first solo show held in Rome.

Ib Benoh began incorporating written rhythmic, poetic statements into his ink drawings on paper.

In 1978, Ib Benoh moved to Rhode Island to attend Rhode Island School of Design graduate program.

Ib Benoh participated in a group show at the RISD Museum.

Ib Benoh began teaching art in 1979 at RISD and later at various colleges and universities, concluding with George Washington University, Washington, DC in 2010.

In 1980, when Ib Benoh was with the Betty Parsons Gallery, he moved to New York City, where he and Youngerman continued their deep conversations.

Ib Benoh accepted the position of Parsons' assistant at her historic NY gallery without knowing anything about Parsons, a renowned gallerist and early promoter of abstract expressionism.

Similarly, when Ib Benoh began working at the gallery, Parsons wasn't aware that Ib Benoh was an artist.

In 1982, Ib Benoh left New York for five months to assist Prince Faysal Al-Sudairy and his partner Paul Borghi, a dealer of Orientalist paintings, in establishing a new gallery, the Shada Gallery, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as well as designing the interior of an office building space.

Ib Benoh planned to begin working on a new body of work and continue his discussions with Parsons regarding a solo show at her gallery.

Later, Ib Benoh reflected on his experience with Betty Parsons as having a significant impact on him.

In 1982 Ib Benoh joined the Tossan-Tossan Gallery in New York, where he went on to have numerous solo and group shows as a gallery artist for the next six years.

Ib Benoh exhibited and had his work on consignment at Scher's River Gallery in Westport, Connecticut.

Ib Benoh went through a trying time of self-evaluation, during which he faced artist's block.

Soon Ib Benoh was able to express his state of mind in a series of collages and small mixed media works, which included a self-portrait of a photographic image of himself taken at a photo booth, juxtaposed with pictures of Venice.

Ib Benoh's friend documented the first moments of Benoh applying large strokes of paint onto large paper.

That year Ib Benoh exhibited his mixed-media artworks in a group show.

Ib Benoh earned his Doctor of Arts in Studio Art degree from New York University in 1993.

Ib Benoh maintained using pure color in his paintings until the catastrophic event of the twin towers.

Ib Benoh depicted a struggle between animal and human forms, alerting us to the dehumanization that stems from artificial divisions.

Ib Benoh creates harmony between the visual and the poetic as his large canvases develop simultaneously with his poems.

Once his groundbreaking canvas series began to take shape, Ib Benoh integrated the inner workings of regenerative dynamics in his digital work evocative of infinity.