Benjamin Zelmer Bellas

Benjamin Zellmer Bellas (b. 1976 Meadville, PA; lives and works in Miami, FL) straddles sentiment and intellect through his multimedia practice, casting everyday objects as ostentatious and sometimes iconic signifiers. His work often plays at the intersection between contemporary visual art and literature to cross pollinate his hybrid practice. Through the subtle staging of a combination of found objects, interventions, creative writing and gestures within the everyday, Zellmer Bellas attempts to understand the experience of understanding; cognition itself. Primary to his concerns are the ways in which image and text may conspire to literally alter one’s vision or understanding. Zellmer Bellas has presented public lectures on his work at venues such as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Oregon, the University of South Florida, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Luce Foundation Feature exhibitions include The letter that you’re writing doesn’t mean you’re not dead, CUAC, Salt Lake City, UT; Until the brilliance is extinguished, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA; and Soft Movements in the Same Direction, The New Gallery, Calgary, Canada. Zellmer Bellas has been included in group exhibitions and screenings at venues such as Contemporary Istanbul; Track 16, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; la Space, Hong Kong; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; and Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki. In 2012, he won the Franklin Furnace Fund for his work. Zellmer Bellas has been featured in The Washington Post, WAMU NPR, and Sculpture Magazine, while his creative writing has been published in journals such as The Pinch, Cadillac Cicatrix and Drain Magazine