Livia Corona Benjamin facts for kids

Livia Corona Benjamin (born in 1975) is a talented artist from Mexico. Her artwork often explores how people connect with the things they build and create. She mixes traditional art methods with new ideas, often looking at how things are made in different parts of the world.

About Livia Corona Benjamin

Her Life and Work

Livia Corona Benjamin was born in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. Today, she works in both Mexico and the United States. She studied art at The Art Center in Pasadena, California, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

In 2009, Livia received a very special award called the Guggenheim Fellowship. This award helped her with her project called Two Million Homes for Mexico. She also received the SNCA Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and was nominated for the Prix Pictet award in 2013.

In her recent work, Nobody Knows, Nobody Knew, Livia looks at the history of money and society, and what political symbols mean. She focuses on big structures called grain silos that were built in rural communities in Mexico. This project mostly uses photographs, paintings, and videos. It shows how these silos are often not used anymore and how many people have moved from rural Mexico to the United States.

Livia Corona Benjamin's art has been shown all over the world. Her work has been displayed in famous places like LACMA in Los Angeles, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, and in Mexico City and Spain. You can find her art in collections at the Museo de Art Carrillo Gil, the Portland Museum of Art, and the William Benton Museum of Art, as well as in many private collections. She has also published her work in books and catalogues.

What She Studied

• Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Art Center in Pasadena, California

Her Amazing Artworks

Pacha, Llaqta, Wasichay

This artwork explores ideas from Indigenous American cultures about their homes and the natural world. The title is in Quechua, a language spoken by many Indigenous Americans. Each word in the title has a deep meaning:

• Pacha means "universe, time, space, nature, or world."
• Llaqta means "place, country, community, or town."
• Wasichay means "building or constructing a house."

These meanings influence the artwork, which looks at Indigenous groups from Mexico and South America, like the Aymara, Maya, Aztec, and Taino. Livia Corona Benjamin adds her own ideas about how buildings, land, and space are connected in the Americas.

Nadie Sabe, Nadie Supo

This was Livia Benjamin's first solo art show. It has two main parts: photograms (a type of photograph made without a camera) and a video. Both parts connect to her project about the silos built by the government in her home country of Mexico.

The photograms are part of another project called Infinite Rewrite. These images are made from tiny particles that create an illusion. Each image looks balanced, but then it changes to the next one. These photograms show how photography works in a world of digital images and automation.

Manhattan Transfer

This artwork uses photography and sculpture. It was Livia Benjamin's first solo show in New York City. The piece explores the idea of Manhattan as a hub for art. It includes sculptures and unique photographs that mix American culture with things traded during colonization and other cultural goods.

Previous/Next

Livia uses her interest in silos by taking photographs of abandoned grain silos across Mexico. She uses these images to explore how we make and look at pictures. Her main goal is to discover how buildings are saved, taken apart, and reused.

The Week In Pictures

This artwork uses C-prints, which are like photographs. They show dark shapes against different colored backgrounds. These shapes overlap, creating white spaces that look like outlines. The images might seem abstract, but they are actually sketches Livia drew. She uses a method called abstraction to rebuild her own ideas and create new, changed pictures.

The Road Was Paved With Silver

This artwork looks at society and politics. It explores Mexico's traditional tourist trade, especially items made by hand. It also talks about Mexico's history and how the global market affects its economy and political situation. The artwork uses silver material to help viewers understand the country's complicated history with these materials. Livia also thinks about Mexico's long history of working with silver. She aims to show a distance from the flow of industrial world trade. At the same time, she reflects on how individual artists and their work are affected by the pressure of mass production.

Where Her Art Has Been Shown

• 2016 Nadie Sabe, Nadie Supo. Parque Galería. Mexico City, Mexico
• 2015 Manhattan Transfer. Sgorbati Projects. New York, NY, USA
• 2014 Previous/Next. Galería Agustina Ferreyra. San Juan, Puerto Rico
• 2011 Of People And Houses. Hartell Gallery, Cornell University. Ithaca, NY, USA
• 2010 Enanitos Toreros. Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts. Portland, OR, USA
• 2009 Of People And Houses. Haus der Architektur. Graz. Styria, Austria
• 2009 Of People And Houses. Galerija Herman Pečarič. Piran, Eslovenia
• 2008 Enanitos Toreros. Powerhouse Arena. Brooklyn, NY, USA

Awards and Recognitions

Livia Corona Benjamin has received many awards and honors for her work, including:

• 2000 30 under 30. Winner. Photo District News (PDN). New York, NY, USA
• 2000 BMW Inziniere Kraft, Prize for Young Photographers. Munich, Germany
• 2003 International Photography Awards. Winner. USA
• 2005 Lente de Plata, Winner. Acapulco, Gro., Mexico
• 2008 The REAL Photography Award, Honorable mention for Two Million Homes for Mexico. ING, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• 2008 Sony World Photography, Architecture Category. Winner for Two Million Homes for Mexico. Cannes, France
• 2009 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for Two Million Homes for Mexico. New York, NY. USA
• 2010 Winner of Julia Margaret Cameron Award. USA
• 2012 Prix Pictet Nominee. United Kingdom
• 2012-2014 Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte of the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes. Grant awardee for Nadie Sabe, Nadie Supo – Entre la S.E.P. y la CONASUPO. CONACULTA, Mexico
• 2013 Prix Pictet Nominee. United Kingdom
• 2015-2017 Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte of the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes. Grant awardee for .925, Auges y Declives de la Plata Mexicana. CONACULTA, Mexico