Queering the Landscape
February 2 – March 1, 2019
Opening reception 2-5pm Saturday February 2, 2019
Exhibition continues Saturdays and Sundays 1-5pm and by appointment

BoxoPROJECTS is very happy to present Queering the Landscape, an exhibition of new work by LA-based artist Ben Cuevas. Working from the viewpoint of his genderqueer, Latinx identity, Cuevas depicts the striking forms and textures of the Joshua Tree landscape using his signature medium of knitting. Utilizing a stitch called “faggotted fringe”, his work reclaims the depiction of the land from the historically hetero-male-dominated practice of landscape painting. The artist incorporates the visual language of macrame, a vernacular present in the California desert and throughout many Latinx cultures and a folk art style often seen as “other”. Existing on the fringes, like queer folk, people of color, indigenous people and the desert itself, these artworks claim “other” as a way of viewing the world and queering the practice of representing place.    

Ben Cuevas is a Los Angeles based artist working in textiles, sculpture, installation, photography, video, sound, and performance. His practice underscores queer/feminist ideologies, with a focus on the condition of embodiment. As a genderqueer, male-bodied, HIV Positive, Latinx artist, his identity directly influences his work, which is often autobiographical. Born in Riverside, California in 1987, Cuevas received a Bachelor of Arts in Mixed Media Installation Art from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA (2010). Following his graduation, at an artist’s residency at the Wassaic Project in New York State, he knitted his masterwork to date-a complete human skeleton. Since then he has created several bodies of work, exhibited widely, and used his art as activism to raise awareness around issues of HIV/AIDS.  

Solo exhibitions: Queering the Landscape at BoxoPROJECTS in Joshua Tree, CA (2019) and Healing Disparities: The Condition of Embodiment at Canal Gallery in Holyoke, MA (2010). Recent group exhibitions of note include: Lost & Found: Safer Sex Activism, ONE Gallery, West Hollywood, CA (2018); New Threads: Perspectives in Contemporary Fiber Art, Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA (2018); and AIDS at Home: Everyday Art and Activism, Museum of the City of New York (2017). Cuevas has given talks on various aspects of art and knitting at events and venues recently including The Museum of Sex (2018), as a special guest of the Fire Island Artist Residency (2018), Palm Springs Art Museum (2018) and Printed Matter’s Los Angeles Art Book Fair (2017). Several books and publications feature Cuevas’s work, such as Ceci n’est pas un pull (2018), published by Pyramyd Éditions, Paris, France; Unraveled (2018), published by Thames & Hudson, London, UK; DUETS: Ben Cuevas & Annie Sprinkle in Conversation (2017), published by Visual AIDS; and Queer Threads: Crafting, Identity, and Community (2017), edited by John Chaich and Todd Oldham.

Artist website: bencuevas.com