Christopher Joshua BENTON

Profile

Born in 1988 in Virginia, USA. Lives in Abu Dhabi and works in Portsmouth, USA. Graduated with an MS in Art, Culture, and Technology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2023.
Using the tools of artistic research, social practice, and installation, Benton creates alternative archives that platform the narratives of diasporic people. His work incorporates themes of identity, labor, and homeland, where his 11 years of living in the UAE is sometimes a point of departure. These stories materialize in sculpture and film, all in a sensitive practice guided by a belief in community collaboration and working-class solidarity.

Recent exhibitions and activities
2024 “Where Lies My Carpet is Thy Home,” Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial
2024 “Between the Tides: A Gulf Quinquennial,” New York University Abu Dhabi Art Gallery
2024 “All is Flux, Nothing Stays Still,” Rizq Art Initiative, Abu Dhabi
2022 “Abu Dhabi Art: Beyond Emerging,” Palazzo Franchetti Cavalli, Venezia
2021 “The World Was My Garden,” Abu Dhabi Art

Awards
2023 "MIT Obermayer Prize"
2022 "Emerging Black Visionaries Award" by Instagram / Brooklyn Museum
2022 "Harold & Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts" by The Council for the Arts at MIT

About works

Benton is an American artist based in Abu Dhabi working in socially engaged art and installation. He collaborates with academics, architects, scientists, and everyday people to imagine new ways of living and create new sites of knowledge production. Current long-term artistic research projects include spearheading an archive of Black dance with scientists from MIT’s Immersion Lab with funding from Meta and Brooklyn Museum; designing a public park for the government of Abu Dhabi; and heading a team of architects and urbanists to re-imagine overcrowded low-income housing in the United Arab Emirates. He holds a master's degree in Art, Culture, and Technology from MIT. He has also completed programs and fellowships with University of Georgia as a HOPE Scholar and University of Oxford as a Gilman Scholar. He's the former global creative director for Huawei.