Thursday August 28, 2025
5:30 - 7:30pm

Join us for a discussion with the artist about his work currently on exhibit in ECHOES OF FORM.

Seating is limited and first come/first served.

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Nicholas Benson: Artist Statement

All of the work I'm making is symbolic of how complex our human lives have become. One could say that it is a record of where we stand in the midst of tremendous technological and scientific advances, and how that inevitably leads to existential questions. 

I have been carving inscriptional and bas relief work in stone for 40 odd years. I am the eighth generation of carvers to continue this work at the John Stevens Shop, following faithfully in traditions that reach back thousands of years in human history.

 I am using bodies of computer code, both taken from the web and also generated with algorithmic tools, and calligraphically interpreting them to reestablish a sense of humanity. I am then carving these symbols into stone as a bridge between historic and prehistoric texts, and the often momentary existence of digital data. It is a means of highlighting the disjunction between our relationship with the physical world and our ever growing interaction with the digital realm.

This exploration of human existence opens perspectives that span the subatomic to the cosmic.

Image/caption: Midpoint Hand carved slate, 23k gold, “gilded picture frames” 28 1/8” x 28 1/8”