Ron Benner

Ron Benner (born 1949) is an internationally recognized Canadian artist whose longstanding practice investigates the history and political economics of food cultures. He is also a gardener and writer who currently lives and works in London, Ontario.

Early life and career

Ron Benner studied agricultural engineering for one year at the University of Guelph (1969–70). Finding himself ethically opposed to bioengineering, he began to travel and research the politics of food, and work as an artist in London, Ontario.

From 1975 through 1981, Ron was a member of the Forest City Artists' Association, and was manager of the Forest City Gallery in 1980–81. In 1983 he co-founded the Embassy Cultural House and served on the board until 1990. Co-organized the Mérida/London exchange (1980/81), as well as the Havana/London exchange (1988). In 1989 he was an artist/observer of the 3rd Havana Biennial.

In 2010 he was appointed Adjunct Research Professor in the Visual Arts Department, Western University.

His mixed media photographic installations are in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Hart House (The University of Toronto), Museum London (London, Ontario), McIntosh Gallery (The University of Western Ontario), The Canada Council Art Bank and the Casa de Las Americas (Havana, Cuba).

Garden installations

Ron's photographic garden installations have been installed in locations across Canada and in Salamanca and Sevilla, Spain. Involved with long-term and immersive research and physical investigation, these photos and species trace back the colonial history, militarization of food, and map plants' economic and aesthetic values.

In 2020, Museum London documented Ron's garden in its 14th year entitled
As the Crow Flies
'.

Selected solo exhibitions

* 2019  ''Trans/mission: Barley – Corn – Maize'', Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, Bowmanville, ON, a year-long site-specific installation responding to the architecture and history of the former barley mill, curator Sandy Saad
* 2017- ''Trans/mission: Native to the Americas,'' permanent photographic/garden installation, sunken garden of the Wilfrid Laurier Library, organized by the Robert Langen Art Gallery, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON
* 2017  ''Transend: Meeting Room'', Robert Langen Art Gallery, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, curator Suzanne Luke
* 2016/17 ''Trans/mission: 101,'' photographic/garden installation
Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery
Kitchener, ON, curator Crystal Mowry presented in concert with CAFKA 16 (Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener Area)
* 2015 ''Ron Benner: 3 Questions'', McIntosh Gallery, Western University, London, ON, curator Julian Haladyn
* 2015 ''All That Has Value'', 3 guerrilla garden installations, in collaboration with CUPE, London, ON
* 2015  ''In Digestion'', Museum London, London, ON
* 2013  ''Insubstantial Equivalence'', photographic/garden installation, curator Peter Dykhuis, on the university campus in partnership with the agricultural faculty and the Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax, NS
* 2012-15  ''Cuitlacoche – Your  Disease Our Delicacy'',  photographic/garden installation, curator Su Ying  Lee, Hart House and Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
* 2010  ''/10'', photographic/garden installation, curator Vicky Chainey Gagnon, site project on campus, Bishop's University, Sherbrooke, Québec
* 2008  ''Trans/mission: Blé d’Inde'', photographic/garden installation, curator Hannah Claus, Axené07, Gatineau, Québec
* 2005-   ''As the Crow Flies'', photographic/water garden installation, Museum London, London, ON
* 2005-09 ''Trans/mission: Still Life'', photographic/garden installations, co-ordinated through McIntosh Gallery, Western University, Grosvenor Lodge, London, ON
* 2005 ''Trans/mission: Pineapple Vectors,'' Telegraph House, Port Stanley, ON
*2003 ''Re-viewed'', Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario.
* 2003 ''Trans/mission: Vectors'', Expression, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec.
* 2003-02 ''Trans/mission: African Vectors''
Oakville Galleries
Oakville, Ontario.
* 2002 ''Photographs 1997-2002'', Colour by Schubert, London, Ontario.
* 1999 ''Capital Remains'', London Regional Art and Historical Museums, London, Ontario.
* 1997/01 ''Trans/mission: Corn Vectors'', University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.
* 1997/01 ''The Commodification of Life'', public project, Ontario New Democratic Party Convention, Hamilton Convention Centre, Hamilton, Ontario.
* 1997 ''In Digestion - Recent Acquisitions'', London Regional Art & Historical Museums, London, Ontario.
* 1996/95 ''All That Has Value'', national touring exhibition: McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario and Covent Garden Market, London, Ontario; Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta; Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia; Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan. Curated by Peter White.
* 1995 ''ANTHRO-APOLOGIES, Peru 1979-80'', Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario.
* 1992 ''¿Valia La Pena?/ Natívas De Las Américas'', Billboard Installation, La Carboneria Sevilla, Spain.
* 1991 ''Selected Works 1976-90'', Galerie Brenda Wallace, Montréal, Québec.
* 1989 ''Ron Benner: Other Lives'', Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario. Curated by Matthew Teitelbaum.
* 1988 ''Bahia de Cochinos/ Bay of Pigs'', Mercer Union, Toronto, Ontario.
* 1988 ''Ron Benner: Other Lives'', Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Curated by Matthew Teitelbaum.

Selected group exhibitions

* 2020 ''Enawenndewin/Relationships'' curated by William Kingfisher, McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON           
* 2019 ''Enawendewin Project, ''Artspace Gallery,'' ''Peterborough, Ontario, curated by William Kingfisher
* 2019 ''The World is a Garden: Jamelie Hassan & Ron Benner'', SB Contemporary, Windsor, ON
* 2019 ''401 West! Portrait of a Region'', Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON
* 2018 ''Imago Mundi'', Onsite Gallery, Toronto, curato
Francesca Valente
* 2017 ''Imago Mundi'', Venice, Italy, curato
Francesca Valente
* 2016 ''Toronto: Tributes and Tributaries, 1971-1989'', Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, curator Wanda Nanibush
* 2016 ''A Line Has Two Sides, Faculty and Staff Exhibition,'' Art Lab, Western University, London, ON, curator Susan Edelstein
* 2015 ''The Second Silk Road International Festival'', Xi'an, China
* 2015 ''The Transformation of Canadian Landscape Art: The Inside and Outside of Being,'' Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
* 2014 ''The World is a Garden while the Walls are the State, Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner,'' A Space Gallery, Toronto, curator Vicky Moufawad-Paul
* 2014 ''The Transformation of Landscape Art in Canada: The Inside and Outside of Being,'' curators Zhou Yan and Yang Chao, off-site project, Great Tang All Day Mall, Xi'an Art Museum, Xi'an, China
* 2014 ''Futurity & Photography,'' Westland Art Gallery, London, ON, curator Troy Ouellette
* 2014 ''Resistance,'' Manif d'art 7, Quebec City Biennial, off-site project in bus shelters in two locations in Quebec City, curator, Vicky Chainey Gagnon
* 2013 ''Sample, Faculty and Staff Exhibition,'' curator Susan Edelstein, Art Lab, University of Western, London, ON
* 2013 ''The World is a Garden'', 2 person exhibition with Jamelie Hassan, Biblioteca Andrés Henestrosa, Oaxaca, Mexico, curator Freddy Aguilar
* 2012 ''Bread & Butter,'' Jackman Humanities Institute/Hart House, University of Toronto, ON, curator Sandy Saad in collaboration with Barbara Fischer
* 2012 ''Place Markers:Mapping Locations and Probing''  group exhibition
Dalhousie Art Gallery
Halifax, NS, curator Peter Dykhuis
* 2011 Windsor Biennial, curator Ian Baxter, Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON
* 2011 ''Where will you be in eternity?'' Thielsen Gallery, London, ON
* 2010 ''Nuit Blanche Retrospective'', Bank of Nova Scotia Building, Toronto, ON
* 2010 ''Growing Histories,'

Bishop's University, Sherbrooke, Québec, curator Genevieve Chevalier and Vicky Chainey Gagnon
* 2010 ''Natural.Disaster'', McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, curator Jessica Wyman
* 2010 ''Minamata/Tunnel Vision'', recent acquisitions
The Art Gallery of Windsor
Windsor, ON
* 2009 ''Home/land & Security'', Render Gallery, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, curator Jeff Thomas
* 2009 ''Orange:'' ''Aesthetics & Ethics'', Expression, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, curator Marcel Blouin
* 2006 – 08   ''Orientalism & Ephemera'', curator Jamelie Hassan, Art Metropole, Toronto, Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor; Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa; Centre A Gallery, Vancouver, BC.;  Art Gallery of the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Sask.
* 2007 ''Bordercases: The Wall'', The Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON
* 2006 ''Science in Art,'' UQAM, Montréal, Québec
* 2006 ''La Nuit Blanche,'' artists project : ''corn roast/ maize barbacoa'', City of Toronto, curators Fern Bayer, Peggy Gale and Chrysanne Stathacos
* 2006 ''Art Against War,'' Cube Gallery, Ottawa'','' Ont. Exhibiting artist and co-coordinator with Don Monet and Jamelie Hassan
* 2006 ''Not Sheep : New Urban Enclosures and Commons'', Artspeak Gallery, Vancouver, BC
* 2005 ''Beyond Bounds'': ''Art in London 1970 -1987'', curator Robert McKaskell, Museum London, London, ON
* 2005 ''Homerun'', ''Recent Acquisitions'', Museum London, London, ON
* 2005 ''Paradigms of Citizenship'', McIntosh Gallery, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON
*2004 ''Open Air 2:'' ''Gateways & Gardens, (Trans/mission: Still Life)'', Grosvenor Lodge, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.
*2004 ''Home & Away'', (Ron Benner, Jamelie Hassan, John Tamblyn & Larry Towell), Michael Gibson Gallery, London, ON
* 2003 ''Looking Left'', Articule, Montréal, Québec.
* 2003
Orange (markets)
', Expression, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec.
* 2003 ''Bookworks on the Fence'', organized by Red Tree Collective, Toronto, Ontario; Epicentro, Mexico City, Mexico and Museum of Vera Cruz, Mexico.
* 2002 ''To Eat or Not To Eat'', Art Centre of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.
* 2002 ''Out There is Somewhere: The Arctic in Pictures'', Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario.
* 2001 ''Continuities'', Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario.
* 2001 ''Pathways'', McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.
* 2000 ''Logo City'', Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario.
* 1999 ''Case Studies: Still Life'', York Quay Centre, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Ontario.
* 1998 ''Fundamental Freedoms: The Artist and Human Rights'', The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
* 1998 ''Freedom, Diversity, Pluralism'', Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago, Chile.
* 1998 ''A Gift for India'', Sahmat, New Delhi, India.
* 1998 ''Foodculture (Transmission: Corn Vectors)'', ArtLab project, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario. Curated by Barbara Fischer.
* 1997 ''Southwest Biennial'', Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario. Curated by Robin Metcalfe
* 1997 ''Track Records: Trains and Contemporary Photography'', Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ontario in collaboration with Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa. Curated by Marnie Fleming.
* 1995 ''AGW Southwest Biennial'', Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario. Guest juror: Jessica Bradley.
* 1995 ''Artists' Gardens'', Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Ontario.
* 1994 ''Recent Acquisitions'', National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
* 1994 ''Artists' Gardens'', Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Ontario.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benner, Ron
21st-century Canadian artists
20th-century Canadian artists
Canadian male artists
Canadian contemporary artists
Living people
Artists from London, Ontario
1949 births
20th-century Canadian male artists
21st-century Canadian male artists