Benjamin Edwards (born 1970) is an American visual artist known for his work with satellite maps, architectural blueprints, and computer models as source material. He is the husband of political consultant and government official

Neera Tanden Neera Tanden (born September 10, 1970) is an American political consultant and government official who has been a senior advisor and staff secretary to President Joe Biden since 2021. Tanden previously served as president of the Center for A ...

Early life and education

Benjamin Edwards was born in

Iowa City, Iowa Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

. He earned a bachelor's degree from

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

and studied toward a master's in painting at the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

before earning a Master of Fine Arts from the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

Career

Edwards is known for his paintings that employ appropriated imagery such as satellite maps, architectural blueprints or computer models as source material. His 2004 painting ''Immersion'', for example, used cartography to explore the impact of the highway system on the development of the American suburbs. His 1998 work ''Starbucks: Seattle: Compression'' compressed all of the Starbucks stores in Seattle into one image. In other works, he has created landscapes from images of fast-food restaurants, commercial signs, condominiums, shopping malls, convenience stores or corporate logos.

Collections

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art, is an art museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was at what is now the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsbur ...

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York *

Orlando Museum of Art Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

Personal life

Edwards is married to

, a lawyer and Democratic political advisor. Tanden was the nominee-designee for Director of the

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...

in the Joe Biden presidential administration briefly before her nomination was withdrawn after opposition.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Benjamin 1970 births Living people American printmakers Rhode Island School of Design alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Artists from Iowa American male painters